


it’s our overflowing confidence and instinct

by _helios (spammerz)



Series: shitty superhero au [2]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Background Relationships, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-13
Updated: 2017-10-04
Packaged: 2018-11-13 18:05:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 38,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11190459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spammerz/pseuds/_helios
Summary: Lee Taeyong: barista by day, caped crusader by night.(minus the cape)(and the crusading)(he spends most of his time making sure his sidekick doesn't do something stupid, if he's honest)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is saved as shitty superhero au on my computer and that's exactly what it is. It's been a good little while since I wrote, so I hope it's not too clunky. 
> 
> title from vixx's superhero 
> 
> Summary changed 30-June 
> 
> unbeta'd (and posted at 4am lol)

Taeyong is almost completely sure that Haechan woke up one morning and thought _hey, what if I become a superhero?_ and then went to the first sucker that would take him in. As luck would have it, that first sucker just happened to be Taeyong and now he regretted every choice that led him to this exact place.

The exact place in question being suspended about three meters above a vat of acid, with a tall, dramatic villain laughing away on a platform nearby.  Taeyong is hanging, tied in place and out of costume, so he can’t even break out without drawing the attention of the monologuing villain unless he wants to risk his identity.  The villain hadn’t even bothered to introduce himself, which meant that he either operated under the delusion that he was infamous, or didn’t understand common courtesy.

Haechan might be in his latest costume, something a bit loose so it doesn’t restrict his movements too much and a domino mask, but he is also dangling over the vat of acid. He can’t even help Taeyong out.

Taeyong partially blames himself, he should have covered this in training.

Partially.

‘When we get back, you are _grounded_ ,’ Taeyong hisses in the moment they make eye contact.

Most half-decent villains manage to tie and suspend their hostages with little difficulty. This new villain hasn’t managed to fix the obvious problem of them spinning, and rabbits on even when they’re not looking at him. He doesn’t seem to be the sort who is in love with the sound of his own voice (unlike some other villains he’s dealt with) but he definitely hasn’t noticed his hostages aren’t paying attention to him. He’s pacing along his platform, looking to the side rather than to them, and talking about _something_.

 ‘This isn’t my fault,’ Haechan insists, wide eyes fixed on Taeyong’s before he spins away. ‘I had absolutely nothing to do with this.’

‘Do you know how many times I’ve been tied up since you came along?’ Taeyong doesn’t even care that he can’t see Haechan properly. ‘ _Six_.’

‘Come on! That’s not too bad.’

‘That’s about one every two weeks.’

‘… at least it’s not once a week? Like that reporter guy from the university?’

‘Ten likes playing bait’

‘He does it for fun? _Cool_.’

‘Not cool, never cool.’ They’re about to spin towards each other again and Taeyong can see the grin that’s stretching across Haechan’s face under his mask. He should have never mentioned Ten. ‘Do _not_ get that idea in your head. I’m not saving you if you get yourself caught deliberately.’

Haechan pauses, for too long and Taeyong’s eyes narrow as he prepares for the next spin. He wants to stare down his useless sidekick, really give him the talking to that the kid deserves. But before he can, the kid lets out a laugh. ‘Hyung, you’d get too lonely without me.’

Taeyong doubt it. ‘Just watch me!’

‘Are either of you listening to me?’ The villain’s voice cuts over Taeyong’s hissed anger.

‘… Yes?’ Haechan says, sunny smile on his face and Taeyong shuts his eyes and lets out a little groan. Don’t engage the villain during his monologues, it was like lesson three of what he covered with the kid. And yet, every single time Haechan decides to engage with a villain.

‘What was I talking about?’ And of course, it was a whiny villain on top of everything else that was going wrong today.

Taeyong has never been the sort to deal with villains before. He prefers to deal with thieves and street level scum over that of the overdramatic, wannabe megalomaniacs. But today that had been messed up by Haechan wanting to try patrolling with Taeyong following up undercover, and somehow, they had stumbled across a budding, whiny supervillain. Unfortunately for Taeyong, said villain was somewhat competent at fighting, despite his incompetence at everything else, and managed to capture both of them.

‘… World domination? Just ‘cause? Revenge?’ Haechan’s scanning the unnamed-villain’s masked face, twisting to try and keep eye contact to read his expression. As if he actually could read anything from the man in front of them. ‘Revenge!’

‘Don’t engage,’ Taeyong grits out, but Haechan’s already on a tangent. This, _this_ is why you stay away from sidekicks and supervillains. Taeyong misses when it was just him, stopping robberies, _occasionally_ sharing some banter with someone like The Thief, who liked to steal things because they were pretty. Of course, everything changed once Haechan bowled into Taeyong’s life. He hadn’t even heard a peep of The Thief in weeks.

‘Girl troubles? Boy troubles? The world troubles? Ah, the world didn’t understand you? Man, I know what that’s like. I swear, every teacher at my school is out to get me right now. Kinda feels like that, doesn’t it? I mean, it’s not my fault they’re assigning way too much homework for us to keep up with. I have three essays due on Monday and I’ve not started _any_ of them yet.

‘I mean one of them is a text analysis so I just have to pick a random passage in the book and pretend that I know what I’m talking about when I say that the colours represent his inner emotions and the weather is symbolic of his desolate life. And let me tell you, my math teacher is horrible, they’re trying to teach us…’

‘Shut up, right now.’ The villain’s voice is stiff and sharp, but it’s enough to make Haechan’s mouth click closed, his voice dying off. Taeyong’s kind of grateful to him for that. ‘Ohmygod, this is just what always happens isn’t it? People talk and talk but they never fucking listen. Just once can’t people listen?’

‘They do listen, just not to you. Hey guys, how’re you going? Sorry we took so long, you wouldn’t believe the traffic.’

Taeyong looks up and perched on the beam above them is Yeoseot. Yeoseot’s never bothered with a proper mask, like the one that Taeyong uses, and his grin is bright and broad underneath for the world to see. Taeyong has never enjoyed the fight, or the banter, like Yeoseot does, but the presence of one of his oldest friends draws a smile up on his face.

Evidentially it’s also enough to bring a smile to the villain’s face.

‘Wow, _wow_ , you’re … Yeodeol? No, you’re not, you’re Yeoseot!’ the irritation in the villain’s voice melts away and instead it’s replaced with awe. Haechan’s grumbling under his voice, _What? 11 not good enough for you or something?_ Taeyong’s almost touched by it, the villain’s admiration for 6. Almost. The whole being tied up and held hostage thing is a major point working against him. ‘Man, I was hoping you’d be the one to come rescue them.’

‘Well you know me, can’t leave a poor, defenceless civilian hanging,’ says Yeoseot. He swings off the beam above them, landing with a clatter on the platform next to the vat of acid. ‘I am a superhero after all.’

Scratch that, Taeyong’s not happy to see Yeoseot, and he makes sure to let him know with as much frowning as he can.

‘Oh please, he’s _Hana_. He would have broken himself out of that eventually, and it would have been epic.’ The villain waves a gloved hand, excitement still laced through the distortion of his voice.

‘You mean that I didn’t have to hang here listening to your monologuing?’ Taeyong whispers, eyes wide as they fix on the villain. He gives a sort of half-shrug and Taeyong twists out of the ropes a moment later. He uses the rope to swing across to where Yeoseot is standing, dropping lightly onto the balls of his feet.

Yeoseot grins at him.

‘That was quick. You get that done while Yeolhana engaged with the bad guy? Rookie mistake, by the way kiddo.’

‘I am not poor and defenceless.’ Taeyong only just resists crossing his arms in front of his body. Yeolseot just laughs at him. It’s a distressingly familiar scenario. ‘I’m not!’

‘What about me?’ Haechan yelps, still hanging in his tightly bound ropes. He wriggles ineffectively and Taeyong hopes that Three’s got eyes on this fight, somehow, so he can force Haechan to watch it later.

‘Lesson … lesson — _‘Hyung!’_ — I don’t know … let’s say lesson eight. Getting out of ropes on your own.’ Haechan lets out a yell (more a shriek) of frustration, but Taeyong and Yeoseot have already turned to face the villain again. ‘Now, for you.’

The villain snaps to attention, shoulders pushed back as his chin tilts up. Taeyong hates to say it but he’s curious about this villain. There’s that self-confidence, and a little bit of disdain, in his words that Taeyong’s heard of from Dul and EXO (who are far more used to the whole superhero thing) when they’ve told him about their villains. But there’s also a little hero worship and something else in there as well, but he can’t put his finger on what it is.

‘Me?’

‘We’re going to give you the option of surrendering, or fighting.’

Most of the idiots went for fighting.

‘Neither sound particularly great,’ the villain admits, and he starts leaning against the small barrier that surrounds his platform. ‘I mean, there’s two of you and one of me, and I can’t fight both of you. But surrendering is also a terrible idea.’ He’s weighing up his options and Taeyong finds it weird. Most of the criminals he’s been fighting for the past six months have been, for the most part, shit.

They’re either dumb as anything, or too big for Taeyong to fight on his own. Yeoseot always manages to find an element of fun in the chase, in the fight. Taeyong feels like he lost that long ago, crime-fighting feeling more and more like a chore every day. It was only thanks to Haechan that he stayed with the job half the time. Though he would never tell the kid that.

‘No, they’re not. But there are only those two options, and 1 and I make a good team,’ Yeoseot says, ‘so I personally recommend surrender.’

Taeyong wishes the banter would just end, so they could knock out this rookie super villain and he can continue about his night. He and Haechan are technically clocked off after this, which means that Taeyong can get a bit of sleep in before work the next morning.

‘Yeah, but what’s the point in surrendering during my first battle with you guys?’

Perhaps he can get a snack before bed. He’s pretty sure the convenience store downstairs is open 24 hours. Anything would be better than having to do the back and forth play between a hero and their new villain. At least with common criminals there are no expectations of creating a rivalry.

He tips his head back and lets out a sigh, noisy and long. It earns him a glare from Yeoseot, but he ignores it. ‘Yeolhana, how are you going with those ropes?’

‘I think I’ve go— Nope, I don’t have it. I’m working on it, hyung.’

That’s training for Saturday morning organised then. Taeyong was worried he’d have to just focus on strength or something, but now Haechan’s going to have to use his brain during their training session.

‘Keep going, I’m not letting you down and 6 won’t either.’

‘ _Hana_.’ Yeoseot sounds exasperated.  ‘We’re supposed to be taking down the bad guy, remember?’

‘My sidekick, I can do what I want with him,’ Taeyong argues back, turning away from the villain. It’s probably not the best superhero protocol, but Taeyong doesn’t think the villain’s going to do anything. He’s had a lot of chances to cause some trouble all night, but all he’s done is talk to them and threaten them with a vat of acid. Not that bad in the grand scheme of things.

‘Taking this guy down will take us five minutes, maximum. Even in those ridiculous skinnies.’

‘What are you talking about? What’s wrong with them?’        

‘They’re red, how on earth are you supposed to be subtle with bright red pants?’

Taeyong’s about to respond when the villain collapses.

‘Um, guys?’ Haechan calls. ‘Tall, dark and creepy told me to tell you guys he’d see you next time.’

‘What the fuck?’ Taeyong mutters, he crosses a beam that connects the two platforms with light steps. 6 is on his back, though with admittedly less grace, as they get closer to the crumpled body. It looks a bit smaller like that, no longer holding itself with the arrogance of before, but Taeyong won’t know anything for sure until he gets closer.

‘He shut down,’ a voice cuts through the silence.  Taeyong bites back a louder curse as another member drops down in front of them. He’s dressed in a dark grey, the suit looser than how Taeyong wears his, and his face is almost completely covered. Taeyong’s never seen him before. ‘I think it was a robot.’

Sure enough, removing the mask reveals that the face underneath is flat and artificial. Taeyong crouches down to have a better look at the robot, as if he had any skill whatsoever in robotics whatsoever. Three would probably be able to have a look at it, break down what it was made of and how it was controlled.

‘Did he say anything else?’ Yeoseot asks, prodding the body with his toe. ‘Well, Taeyong, at least that whole villain interaction thing is over now. I know how much you hate that.’ The unnamed man laughs.

‘Yuta,’ Taeyong says, voice low and measured. ‘Who is this?’

‘New friend of mine, I’ve been helping him ease into the Seoul hero scene.’ Yuta directs his grin towards Taeyong again, and Taeyong hates it for a brief moment. But only a moment because unfortunately Yuta is his best friend. ‘He was helping me get ready for patrol and then Hansol-hyung noticed you hadn’t checked in, so we decided to find you.’

‘No, but who is he? What’s his name?’

‘I can’t say that? _TY_ , superhero private life. Speaking of, Hansol’s going to love this robot.’

‘So, superhero private life applies to him but not me? You literally said my name like a minute ago.’

‘Yeah,’ Yuta looks up, ‘you’re in civs. It’s obvious who you are. We need to separate our secret identities from our hero ones, aren’t you the one who’s always saying that?’

‘And you choose now to enforce it? Literally last week you told me and two bank robbers about your private life with Hansol-hyung. No-one needs to know that.’

Yuta’s eyes are scarily serious from beneath the mask. ‘Excuse you, everyone needs to know that. It was our anniversary, and anniversary sex is the best sex.’

‘… not in front of my underage sidekick, _please_.’

The unnamed man laughs again. ‘I’ll start packing this up for Yuta-hyung and Hansol-hyung. You’re going to get him started on their anniversary if you keep this up. You better get Yeolhana down before he pulls another muscle.’

Taeyong looks up at Haechan, who’s still struggling against the ropes. ‘Thanks, I guess,’ he says with a small bow. ‘Nice meeting you.’ The unnamed man just nods before turning back to the robot on the floor between them. Taeyong takes that as a sign to cut Haechan down, small sigh leaving his lip, and fiddles with the control panel for the crane that Haechan’s connected to.

‘Next Saturday we’re working on your escape skills,’ he says with a heavy sigh. ‘Remind me.’

‘Not this Saturday?’ Haechan asks, bright grin on his face as he is finally turned upright. ‘Do we get to take a break? Have some bonding time.’

‘… No, you’re going to finish those essays. Don’t think I wasn’t listening.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that was chapter one. I'm hoping to have chapter two done by next week.
> 
> 6-July: After a bit of consideration, I've changed the Vigilante/Hero/Sidekick names to the romanticisation of the Pure Korean numbers to eliminate confusion in later chapters. 
> 
> Hana (One) Taeyong  
> Dul (Two) ??  
> Yeoseot (Six) Yuta  
> Yeodeol (Eight) ??  
> Yeolhana (Eleven) Haechan
> 
> I hope everyone enjoys Cherry Bomb xx


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Free to a Good Home: One 6ft giant who can't work a panini press and his judgemental Thai boyfriend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is out sooner than expected. I'm possibly still hyped from Cherry Bomb. What did y'all think of it?
> 
> This is still very much a set up chapter so we get a better idea of who Taeyong is as well as expand a bit more on the whole superhero NCT thing. Hope it doesn't drag too much! 
> 
> Unbeta'd (and posted at 2:30 am, we're getting better guys!)

Moon Taeil owns a small coffeeshop in Mapo that is more commonly frequented by sleep-deprived university students than anyone else. It’s tucked out of the way but the coffee is cheap and Taeyong’s too generous with the wi-fi password, so they get by for the most part.Taeil doesn’t mind doing the morning shifts whilst Taeyong takes over the afternoon ones, so they have a good balance.

On a normal day, Taeyong turns up and needs to down a latte of his own before he gets started, but thanks to the early finish last night he feels well rested for once when he turns up for work. He’s smiling when he walks into the café, and he takes in the people that fill it. Taeil’s behind the counter, cleaning the coffee machine, and there are a handful of students curled up over their laptops with desperation in their eyes.

It must be exam period.

‘Afternoon,’ Taeil says, smiling at Taeyong with that disconcerting smile of his. It’s not his real smile, the one that Taeyong’s used to receiving, which means that morning had been busy. He hopes that won’t translate into a busy afternoon, because Taeyong just wants a day off from everything.

‘Long morning, hyung?’ he asks, dropping his bag besides the counter and kicking it away before pulling out his apron.

‘More than. Starbucks flooded this morning, so we’ve already made budget.’

‘Did you need help? Why didn’t you call me?’

‘I didn’t want to wake you if you had the afternoon shift as well. I called that part-timer we’re trialling.’

‘The Chinese kid? Sicheng?’

Taeil and Taeyong had interviewed the kid a few weeks back, but Taeyong never chased up what happened with the interviews. It’s not his place what Taeil does with the café, he’s just there to support Taeil through his business venture until the business is stable enough to be run without Taeyong’s help.

‘How’d he go?’ Taeyong asks, keeping his voice that bit lower so he doesn’t disturb the students from their work.

‘He’s good, fast at putting the drinks together. He can do a couple at the same time without mixing them up.’

Taeyong hums in surprise, he and Taeil aren’t great at multitasking when making coffees. They’re decent enough at the customer service and can make an excellent drink, but when it comes time to deal with the lunch time rush they’re left floundering.

‘We’re keeping him beyond the trial period?’

‘We’ll see how he goes with you on a shift and work from there,’ Taeil unties his own apron, ‘I can’t wait around, sorry. If you need any help, Doyoung’s capable enough to help. Do not call me unless someone dies.’

Taeyong nods, used to the handoff, and hopes that he won’t have to call Doyoung. The other man is decent enough company for the most part, but Doyoung caught him stumbling home at seven in the morning last Tuesday and still hasn’t stopped judging him for it.

It’s not Taeyong’s fault that thieves like to break into jewellery shops at night.

Taeil leaves with a wave, and Taeyong settles in behind the counter with his laptop. Unless he has a lot of cleaning to do, there isn’t much to do while he waits for someone to order a cup of coffee or a sandwich. Their regulars won’t mind, but he keeps one eye on the door in case the lull in customers ends.

 

 

He’s made himself a cup of coffee and he’s scrolling through Facebook when the door opens. Taeyong looks up, ready to greet the customer when he recognises the man walking in. Johnny’s cut and dyed his hair since Taeyong last saw him, a dark black that’s shorter at the sides than it used to be. It looks good, but Taeyong’s not going to be the one to tell him.

‘How’d patrol go last night?’ Johnny doesn’t even bother greeting Taeyong, as usual, just walks behind the counter and starts inspecting the pre-made sandwiches on display. ‘Hansol-hyung mentioned that there was some sort of robot villain thing?’

Taeyong looks around, at the five or six people typing away with fear and desperation. ‘Shut up,’ he hisses, closing his laptop. ‘Also, you don’t work here you’re not supposed to be behind the counter.’

‘Literally none of them are paying attention to us,’ Johnny says, waving his hand. His grin always edges into something cocky, as usual. If it was anyone else, Taeyong would have been muttering away with the annoyance that rises in his stomach at the sight of it. Johnny is Taeyong’s best and oldest friend, however, and gets away with a lot more than what he should. ‘How’s the sidekick thing going? I told you it was going to be awesome.’

‘It’s _not_.’

Whilst Taeyong has always tried to stick to the street-level crime of Seoul, and is considered by some people as more a vigilante than a superhero, Johnny is a major player in the hero game. He has been a superhero for about as long as Taeyong has, and had a longer sidekick period than most of the people they’ve worked with. He even has a nemesis who tried to enslave the city once.

He’s also got superpowers, flight and super-strength, which come in handy during a flight.

As such, whilst Taeyong and Haechan have been working together for two and a half months, Johnny’s sidekick Yeol (more commonly known as Mark, because Johnny had apparently felt weird about his sidekick and boyfriend sharing a name even though they were in different languages) has been in training for over a year now.

‘What do you mean it’s not? It’s like, a hundred times better that fighting alone!’ Johnny’s selected the sandwiches, pulling them out from behind the counter and placing them in the panini press.

‘Your sidekick is amazing, Yeolhana’s a fucking troll or something.’ Taeyong takes the sandwiches out of the panini press and puts them in the microwave first. Johnny still hasn’t worked out how to properly heat up a sandwich, even after months of scabbing off Taeyong’s kindness, but it does give Taeyong something to do. ‘Do you know what he did last night? He engaged with the bad guy for fifteen minutes, about whether or not he should change his costume to long pants. And that was before we got to the monologuing!’

‘Classic,’ Johnny grins. ‘Did he decide?’

‘No, not classic! Stupid!’ Taeyong moves the sandwiches back into the press with more aggression than necessary. ‘He engages with the bad guy, a _villain_ in this case, he doesn’t pay attention in his lessons, and he spends more time making fun of me than he does training.’

Taeyong scowls while Johnny laughs at him.

Johnny’s sidekick is nice to him, and puts in a serious effort to learn about being a superhero. If Johnny doesn’t have a big night ahead of him, then chances are that Mark will wander off to find one of the other heroes in Mapo. He used to shadow Taeyong a fair bit, before Haechan turned up. It was nice, sitting on top of buildings and just talking about the superhero life.

Haechan can’t stay still for more than five minutes.

‘Did the itty-bitty sidekick hurt your feelings?’ Johnny asks.

Couldn’t they swap? Taeyong could have peace with Mark, and Johnny and Haechan could be terrible people together. They’d deserve each other, he thinks. Together they could annoy every criminal and villain, super or not, into surrender because no-one would want to deal with them.

‘He’s just, _annoying_ ,’ Taeyong sighs, ‘I don’t know why he wants to train with me. I don’t know why he thinks he should be a sidekick. It’s like he doesn’t take the job seriously or something.’

‘Have you talked about it yet?’

‘No?’

‘Dude, it’s been two months … more! How have you not talked to him about why he’s training? Please don’t say that you just wait for him to turn up, sticking him through training and then wave him off at the end of the night.’

‘… not exactly?’ Taeyong winces at the way Johnny’s expression immediately drops into pure judgement. ‘I mean, we do talk, just, not much? It’s mostly about training and stuff.’

‘You know that things would probably be better if you talked to him?’

Taeyong doesn’t leap into the air, but he jolts, hands flying to his chest. ‘TEN! You cannot keep sneaking up on me like that.’

The Thai man has his unimpressed face on. Between Johnny and Ten, Taeyong’s feeling attacked, and he crosses his arms to try and appear menacing. It does not work on either of them, so instead he gets their sandwiches out of the press. He’s not mad enough to withhold the food, yet.

‘Seriously though, Tae-hyung,’ Ten says, once Johnny’s finally moved away from behind the counter and settled down on one of the small tables. ‘Maybe you should just spend some time getting to know the kid, outside of the fight. You know as well as we do that it’s better for the dynamics between superheros.’

It is true, he supposes. It’s more fun on the days his with his friends rather than alone. But …

‘I already spend so much time with him training, what am I supposed to do? Cut down on training in order to do team bonding? He can’t even get himself out of handcuffs properly yet, at least not without talking the whole way through.’

‘Then talk to him while he’s learning how to get out of the handcuffs,’ Johnny suggests. ‘It’s about making time for it.’

Ten hums in agreement, and Taeyong hates both of them for being reasonable. He tells them as much and they laugh at him. Couples are gross.

‘It’s not that hard, Tae-hyung, and you know it,’ Ten says. He’s about to continue, probably with a small speech about friendship and teamwork, when one of the students gets up from their tables and stumbles towards the counter. Taeyong thanks the college student gods for the distraction.

Taeyong moves on instinct, starting on the shot of coffee before the student even mumbles out _latte for Jaehyun, please_.

‘Dude, you’re the only one ordering coffee, he doesn’t need your name,’ Johnny snorts. Ten hits him on the shoulder, although Taeyong suspects it feels like a tap, and Taeyong shakes his head. Nevertheless, Jaehyun laughs and that clears up some of the exhaustion that’s dragging through him.

‘Sorry about that, he doesn’t have any manners,’ Taeyong says. ‘Sugar?’

‘One, thanks,’ Jaehyun says. He leans against the counter, and Taeyong is struck with how pretty the brunet boy is. Despite his obvious exhaustion and the hoodie that covers most of his body and head, Taeyong can see that he’s got wide eyes and a fit body. More importantly. his smile is genuine despite the exhaustion. Taeyong can feel his cheeks heating up as he turns back to the coffee machine. ‘I feel like I’ve seen you around before. I’m Jaehyun.’

‘You mentioned. I’m Taeyong. I work here most afternoon shifts it’s probably from that.’ He’s almost finished with the coffee, which means that Pretty Jaehyun will return to his laptop and leave Taeyong with the pair of arseholes he calls his best friends.

(Both are smirking at him. It’s not a good sign. Neither of them are a good sign. Taeyong needs new friends, Hansol’s all right when Yuta’s not around.)

‘Yeah, that’s probably it,’ Jaehyun says. ‘I only found this place a little while ago. It’s a nice little café, you guys have a really good set up.’

‘Thanks, we’re proud of it,’ Taeyong says, handing the latte over to the younger man. Jaehyun takes it with a grin and walks back to his laptop.

‘ _Thanks, we’re proud of it_ ,’ Johnny mocks with a laugh. Taeyong’s blush deepens and he leans over the counter to flick Johnny in the middle of the forehead. ‘You’re such a loser sometimes.’

‘Shut the fuck up,’ Taeyong hisses. Ten’s tapping away at his phone, and Taeyong is incredibly glad that Haechan isn’t a part of the group chat. ‘He’s just nice, is all. Most of the students just grunt at me during exam period.’

‘Sure, Taeyong-ah.’ Johnny shakes his head. ‘But seriously, what we were saying before? It’s a good idea to talk to the kid.’

Taeyong’s eyes fly up one more time to check on Jaehyun, but he seems immersed in his work again. They don’t really have to worry about eavesdropping, especially not with exhausted university students, but Taeyong’s careful.

Also he’s hoping that Jaehyun will come back, so that he doesn’t have to deal with the conversation.

‘I’ll think about it,’ he says as he wipes down the coffee machine. ‘If I can find the time for it.’

‘Do you even know his last name?’ Ten asks. Taeyong doesn’t speak that is answer enough for Ten, whose lips purse into a tight scowl.

‘He’s my sidekick, I can do what I want with him. Anyway, we can’t afford to lose more time, especially now that he’s grounded.’

‘You grounded him? _Again?_ ’ Johnny shakes his head, as if his opinion matters to Taeyong. Mark is a little angel, who does what he’s told. Johnny probably doesn’t even know what his grades are, for all that he rabbits on about building a bond between hero and sidekick.

‘He’s failing maths, can you believe that?’ Taeyong shakes his head. ‘And he’s falling behind in literature. I mean, teachers these days assign so much homework as it is, and criminals aren’t helping by committing crimes at night.’

Ten and Johnny are exchanging couple looks that Taeyong can’t understand, but he continues anyway.

‘Remember The Thief? The guy who always used to break into jewellery stores and museums? He was good, always got the job started before eleven and my work would be done by one. He’d be a great criminal to set Yeolhana against, not too malicious but still tricky.’

‘He literally escaped every time.’ Johnny’s judging him again.

Why does everyone in Taeyong’s life judge him so much? He’s not that much of a fuck-up. Sure, his washing machine stopped work last week, and he always makes too much pasta, but he pays his bills mostly on time and doesn’t hurt anyone unless they're a really shitty criminal.

‘Yeah, but he was interesting you know? None of that rawr I wanna rule the world business that we hear about so much these days. He was my favourite bad guy, I miss him.’

‘You’re not supposed to play favourites with your bad guys.’ And now Ten’s joining in on the judgement train. Honestly. Taeyong doesn’t judge Ten for writing articles about Johnny’s crime-fighting adventures, he doesn’t deserve this kind of treatment. 'And you literally have no right to get on 11's back about engaging with the enemy when you used to discuss dramas with The Thief.'

Taeyong ignores the last bit.

‘No, I'm serious. I miss the days of good, solid bad guys. The ones that had _some_ morals, the ones we have now are awful. Inconsiderate. Why does crime have to happen at three in the morning? I mean, we’re patrolling anyway, it's not like they're doing it because no-one's going to notice them. If The Thief was still around, Yeolhana wouldn’t be missing nearly as much class.’

‘Dude, that’s just your kid. Mine’s top three in his class.’

Of. Fucking. Course.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Three guesses what classic 2014 meme I associate with Taeyong. 
> 
> This entire fic was inspired by the thought of Taeyong being the broke, somewhat shitty version of Batman having Haechan as his sidekick and just being jealous of Superman Johnny with his perfect sidekick, Mark.
> 
> 6-July: After a bit of consideration, I've changed the Vigilante/Hero/Sidekick names to the romanticisation of the Pure Korean numbers to eliminate confusion in later chapters regarding Ten and Mark's Sidekick name. 
> 
> Hana (One) Taeyong  
> Dul (Two) Johnny  
> Yeoseot (Six) Yuta  
> Yeodeol (Eight) ??  
> Yeol (Ten) Mark  
> Yeolhana (Eleven) Haechan


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haechan's still grounded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first win yo~ are you proud? come on, tell me you're proud!
> 
> honestly, I meant to get this up almost a week ago but then I got emotionally destroyed by the P101 finale and lost a bit of the groove with the whole writing thing but I'm back at it now! This is a bit of insight into the 'world' this is set in, hopefully it still has some forward momentum. 
> 
> Un-beta'd but not posted at arse o'clock in the morning!

Haechan likes to call the safehouse Taeyong’s Lair. Taeyong likes to think that Haechan’s full of shit. It’s the shell of a house, having been abandoned halfway through renovations. Taeyong’s confident that the owner ran out of money and failed to sell it half-finished. Haechan’s theory is the owner was a high-level thug who got jailed years ago and forgot the house existed.

The boy sometimes likes to wander through the house and laugh, just to hear the sound echo around the ramshackle building. It sounds creepy, but it’s also annoying and a massive waste of time and Taeyong is sure to tell him every time Haechan goes off to wander around the house. It doesn’t stop Haechan.

The only requirement Taeyong had three years ago when he started on his own and was looking for a base, was that it would fly below the radar. After a few weeks of searching and scouting, he found the house tucked up at the top of a hill, ignored by neighbours and forgotten by the owners.

It was an added benefit that although construction never finished, the house got to the point that windows and doors had been put in. It meant that the building was sealed and, with a few more upgrades, secured. What had started as a place to store his uniform and supplies had turned into a sort of second home for him.

‘When can I see the other lairs? I mean, are they all as bad as ours?’

‘First of all,’ Taeyong says picking his way through the dark, ‘it’s not a lair.’ He reaches around to start the generator. It’s loud, but the lights that Taeyong set up flicker on and illuminates what they assume is the living room. ‘And give it a few more months, you’re technically still on probation.’

He doesn’t mention to Haechan that their base of operations is probably the worst of the lot. Mainly because Johnny uses some space castle thing, and Yuta works out of his and Hansol’s apartment. (Which is _incredibly_ stupid, in Taeyong’s opinion but no-one ever listens to him anyway.)

His is the cleanest though.

‘Can’t you take me off probation?’

‘Even if I could, I wouldn’t.’

‘Why not? Hyung, you’re the leader, aren’t you?’

Taeyong laughs. ‘Only in name.’

Haechan’s expression is dubious. Taeyong sometimes forgets that he’s only been bouncing around behind him for a few months (it feels like forever though, a long dragging forever) and is still learning about the job in its entirety, not just the smaller things.

‘We’re not like, Exo or Super Junior,’ Taeyong explains. ‘They’re, a fixed team and they have clear leadership. We’re larger than both groups,’ they hadn’t used to be, before _China_ , ‘and we’re not … we’re not so structured, we’re not an organisation.’

‘But they are?’

‘Yes, that’s why they work in organised teams more frequently than we do.’ Haechan sits on one of the armchairs that Taeyong picked up from a thrift shop a few months ago. He’s interested, for once, and Taeyong continues, little swell of pride rising in his stomach. ‘We’re a team, but because we like each other and work well with each other, not because we wanted to form a group like them. So yeah, I’m a leader in name because we needed someone to be a point of contact, but I’m not in charge.’

‘Is that why we don’t have like, a team name or proper superhero names?’ Haechan leans forward.

‘Exactly,’ Taeyong says with a nod.

Really, it’s because the one time they sat down and tried to brainstorm they started arguing and broke the table. They decided that names were unnecessary, as long as they got their work done.

‘And someone else gets to decide when I pass probation?’ Taeyong nods, and Haechan looks speculative for a moment. Then a smile that can only be described as evil works across his face. ‘Okay then, looks like you and I are going to have to spend more time with 6 and 2.’

Taeyong sighs, long suffering and exhausted. ‘They’re not the ones you have to impress.’

‘Who is?’

‘Not telling.’

‘ _Hyuuuuung.’_

Taeyong ignores Haechan, instead moving to pull out his suit. Most of the others hate it, Yuta in particular thinks that it’s dull but really Taeyong’s tested a lot of things over the years and this works the best.

Also, Taeyong’s broke as fuck so he takes what he can get.

It’s tight, a very dark grey and anything that might be considered an identifier has been dyed or covered. He bought most of it from a local activewear store and they have definitely caught onto who Taeyong is but they don’t say anything apart from a comment or two about when they’re expecting a new line that’s a bit sturdier than the last.

Compression leggings are great until they tear from being too thing. Taeyong can only fix so many holes until they’re unsalvageable.

Also, they’re comfy.

They’re kind of useless against bullets though. Taeyong doesn’t worry as much about them though, doesn’t need to. The best defence against bullets tends to be Yuta, when he does come across someone with a gun. If Yuta’s not there, then he just has to try to be faster. It’s a work in progress.

Taeyong has never claimed to be perfect.

‘What are we doing tonight?’ Haechan asks, watching as Taeyong struggles into the leggings. ‘Patrolling? Investigation?’

‘You,’ Taeyong looks up, ‘are going to work on trying to escape ropes.’ He points to a flimsy wooden chair set up in the middle of the living room. It’s next to the heater so the kid won’t get cold, and there’s a laptop set up on the table in front of it. Haechan’s making complaining noises, but Taeyong ignores him. ‘Once you’ve done that, your next task is on the table. If you finish both then call me and you can join me on patrol. I’ll leave a film on for you.’

Haechan’s not happy, but he drops himself into the chair, allowing Taeyong to tie him in place. It’s not overly complicated, most bad guys just check to make sure that they’re secure than anything, but the sooner Haechan gets used to getting out from this, the sooner they can start on working on the whole suspended over a vat of acid aspect.

 

 

Normally, the people in their team conduct their night time work with an earpiece in so that Hansol can tell that what’s going on around the city. Unfortunately for Taeyong, Hansol has a late class that runs until nine, and another at eight in the morning. Thanks to some particularly stubborn university administrators, so Taeyong’s forced to do patrol the old-fashioned way. By actually patrolling.

He’s used to it, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, trying not to bring too much attention to himself. Taeyong tends to stick to the quieter neighbourhoods, especially since the more active ones don’t shut down until quite late at night, so he doesn’t have to be _as_ sneaky as some of his friends.

It’s just that patrolling can get boring, especially at night.

Taeyong crouches on the top of small buildings, looking out across the streets and keeping a careful ear out for anything that sounded suspicious. So far, he’s heard a drunk man talk to a lamp-post, and his hero-ing act was to buy the man a bottle of water and point him in the right direction.

He closes his eyes, turning on the switch in his earpiece that extends his hearing beyond what is humanly possible. It squeals in his ear and Taeyong curses, falling off the small wall that he’s perched on. Thankfully, he falls backwards and his arse hits the roof with an uncomfortable thud.

He springs up and dusts off his suit, clearing his throat. Haechan hasn’t laughed about it in Taeyong’s ear, which means he’s either still tied up, doing his maths homework or is watching the film that Taeyong left on for him. The film in question is one that Taeyong has heard Haechan mention before. He’s supposed to be analysing it for school.

The kid’s getting a well-rounded education, Taeyong likes to think.

After the earpiece has a moment to adjust (something that Taeyong is going to have to mention to Hansol, if he remembers), Taeyong listens around the area for anything that could betray possible criminal activity. The thing is, however, that since the number of vigilantes and heroes rose in Seoul, there’s not much that happens.

One time, he had stumbled across a couple of low level thieves trying to mug a man, and as soon as he dropped down from the fire-escape they had screamed and then run away.

He does hear something this time though, a heavy beat that sounds a bit thinner than it should. Music through headphones. It’s a familiar song, and Taeyong leaps through the air, jumping from building to building to work out where it comes from. Hansol’s still working out the range of the earpiece.

‘We’re not supposed to listen to music during patrol.’

‘We’re not meant to leave our sidekicks at home,’ Yuta bites back, turning off his phone but he’s smiling anyway. Taeyong switches off the earpiece, the world sounding empty and echoing as he waits for Yuta to fill up the silence. ‘Do I want to know?’

‘Still grounded from the robot man.’

‘Dude, it’s been like a week and a half since then. You’ve got to give him a break.’

‘It’s the last day,’ Taeyong says, waving a gloved hand. ‘If he finishes his work then I’ll let him come out tonight.’

‘You’re not his Mum, Taeyong.’

Taeyong feels a little bit offended at that, but decides not to comment on it.

‘It’s not like there’s much for him to be learning right now anyway,’ he says, pointing at the dimly lit expanse of Seoul’s neighbourhoods. ‘I mean, sure he could probably get to know the street’s layouts a bit more, but not much is going on these days.’

Yuta hums in agreement, drawing out a pack of Pocky from the small bag of supplies he keeps on him. Pepero is superior in Taeyong’s opinion, but he’s not going to turn down the snack when it’s offered to him. It’s companionable, sitting up on the roof and just _talking_. Except, well, they’re not supposed to be doing that.

‘Remember when we used to be so busy that we couldn’t even rest for more than ten minutes?’ he asks, looking at Yuta.

Yuta laughs, smile wide and eyes bright. ‘They’re too scared of us now. None of them had any idea what they were in for back when we started.’

‘It’s so boring now.’

‘Just a bit.’ Yuta doesn’t even bother trying to argue. He may be powered, but he’s always stuck to the more low-level crime that Taeyong fights against. ‘There’s a lot of us now, in Seoul, I bet if we went on holiday to Busan or Daegu we could find something to do.’

‘We should, check out the scene there, do a bit of networking.’ Not that Taeyong or Yuta ever dealt with things that needed a lot of people. Occasionally they got caught up in a gang war, but between them and Johnny they generally got the job done. ‘Who’s down in Busan anyway?’

‘Bangtan.’ Yuta knows more about these things than Taeyong, he really should keep a better track of what’s going on in the superhero/vigilante world. But since Taeil opened the coffeeshop, Taeyong’s had more important things on his plate. ‘I’ve heard that f(x) are moving up to Incheon as well.’

It made sense, and Taeyong mentioned that. More and more groups were moving out of Seoul, as the criminal world began to leave the capital. They were scared of the heroes, and Taeyong was pleased to hear that the crime rates were going down.

But he knew better than to get complacent.

‘Hansol-hyung’s found another corruption gig,’ Yuta continues, ‘something local. It doesn’t have much street work, but he says you could work into it.’

‘I’m hopeless at those,’ Taeyong shakes his head. Last time he had worked on a long term take down, he had almost ruined the whole thing by stuttering. ‘We both know that it’s work that needs to be done, but I’m not built for it.’

‘All you have to do is stand there and look menacing. That cute little glare of yours works wonders against the white-collar criminals, as long as they don’t realise what you’re actually like.’

He pinches Taeyong’s cheek and earns a glare.

It does nothing, Taeyong is sorry to say.

‘Would it just be us?’

‘He’s contacted Irene, wants to see if the girls want to work the case as well.’

Taeyong can see why it’s a good idea. Irene and her girls are extremely efficient at tearing down corruption. They were never like Taeyong and his team, who started out fighting in the twisting alleyways of Seoul, but instead trained and prepared themselves for the glitz and glam of the business world.

Taeyong’s half in love with them, and is half scared of them.

‘Also, maybe that new guy? The one you met last week with robot man? It’d be a good way to see how he fits on the team.’

‘Who is he, anyway?’

‘I’ll bring him around sometime, you can meet him and give your official approval. He’s newer to the scene, only a few weeks but he’s _good_.’

‘I could see that. Have you introduced him to the others yet?’

‘Just Johnny and Mark. Johnny likes him so far, but Mark’s half infatuated. It’s kind of cute, he keeps following the new guy around, asking questions and stuff.’

Taeyong sighs, ‘I remember when Mark used to do that. But what do I have instead? A kid who snarks me and fails maths.’

Yuta rolls his eyes but Taeyong doesn’t notice.

‘I left some math problems out for him as well, if he gets them done then he can come over and join me on patrol. I don’t think I made them too hard, I just took them from a textbook that’s aimed for his year level.’ What if they were too hard? What if Haechan is bent over the worksheet, and can’t do the questions. And his confidence gets blown and he can’t do maths at all. Taeyong wouldn’t be any better than the criminals that work at 3am. ‘I should check on him.’

‘You go do that,’ Yuta shakes his head as he says it. ‘I’ll give you call if I notice anything odd tonight. Keep your phone on you.’

Taeyong barely notices him, spitting out a thank you before grabbing the last stick of Pocky and leaping off the building.

What if it wasn’t too hard, and was actually too easy? What if Haechan was just playing around instead of being serious? Honestly, Taeyong should have thought this through. He’s been a sidekick, he knows better than to just leave them alone and unsupervised.

It doesn’t take him long to cross the streets of Seoul, finding his way back to the base that Haechan’s still in. It’s been a few hours since he left the boy, so he’s confident that he’s at least worked his way out of the ropes. If he hasn’t, then Taeyong’s going to seriously have to put aside a day or two where he just goes over the basics with Haechan.

Again.

He creeps through the shell of a house, stopping in the doorway when he sees Haechan. The boy’s still in the chair, but he’s no longer tied up. Instead, he’s slumped over the paper on the table. Taeyong walks closer, and sees that the kid has filled out about half of the maths questions that he left out. It doesn’t look too bad either.

He picks up the younger boy, he might not have super strength like Johnny but he can manage a 17-year-old, and moves him one of the couches.

Yeah, sometimes he really hates his sidekick. But not all the time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise next chapter will have a lot of Jaehyun to make up for the amount of exposition and the lack of funny in this chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Taeyong doesn't have a single friend who isn't an arsehole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> literally taeyong is an awkward stick in this fic i'm so sorry. (is it bc i'm an awkward stick? possibly yes)
> 
> unbeta'd as usual.

He’s only a year older than Taeyong, but Taeil has his life together in a way that Taeyong _dreams_ of — that is, he owns a business, goes to bed at a reasonable time and never has overdue bills. Taeyong knows that a small part of it comes from having a sizable sum given to him that got the business off the ground in the first place, but Taeil’s business only flourishes under his guidance.

Taeil has always maintained that the most important thing he learnt from the four years he spent studying business was how people worked. Particularly that of students, and he has been exploiting the market since he opened the café eight months ago.

If Taeyong was still studying, he would have been just like the students that stumble into Taeil’s café. There’s a promise of quiet, of power, of coffee and of free wi-fi. The only requirement is that you don’t abuse the privilege that’s given to you in the wi-fi password (which Doyoung monitors like a hawk, and Taeyong like a koala or sloth).Most of the kids that come through are regulars, people that they know and trust, and are so focussed on their assignments they don’t keep track of the cakes they buy or the number of coffees.

On a normal day, there’s a maximum of two people working in the café at one time. Taeyong and Taeil work together, but the overlap in their shifts means that Taeyong sees less of his friend than when they worked at different cafes.

Today is not a normal day.

The tranquillity of the café has always been one of its biggest draws, so Taeil made it his business to know the dates of the university semester. In the final stretch before exams and assignments, Taeil drops the price of the coffee and introduces cheap refills. That and the opening of the quieter backroom means that the number of customers eating in increases exponentially.

On these sort of promotion days, Taeyong, Taeil and Doyoung are all in from open to close.

Doyoung’s not quite slaving away in the kitchen, but he’s putting in a good effort. He, like Taeil, works the morning shift and on a normal day Taeyong gets the benefits of his cakes without his company. This is the first time they’ve worked the same shift in about three weeks, and there is a good reason for that. 

It works like this: Johnny is Taeyong’s friend in the way he’s an arsehole fifty percent of the time, but at the end of the day he’s always there for Taeyong. Yuta is Taeyong’s friend in the way they’ve grown up together since they were fifteen, extensions of each other despite the years. Doyoung is Taeyong’s friend in the way that they spend more time bickering and teasing each other, until someone insults one and the other is ready to _fight_.

So, while they both work great with Taeil, them working together is a recipe for disaster.

‘Purple looks dumb as _fuck_ on you,’ Taeyong insists, carrying in a pile of plates to stick them in the dishwasher. ‘It’s worse than the time you went orange.’

Neither were that awful, but it was the principle of the matter. Taeyong wasn’t allowed to let a single thing slide.

‘It looks better than when you went purple last year.’ Taeyong is impressed that Doyoung can argue and decorate cupcakes at the same time, though he’d never tell the younger man. ‘It was so pale you looked like a grandfather.’

Taeyong doesn’t have a single friend that he doesn’t hate at least a little bit.

‘I’m serious, is this like, your post-teenage rebellion? Quarter life crisis?’ he asks, picking at Doyoung’s hair and getting his hand slapped in response because _I’m baking hyung!_ ‘This is almost as bad as the time that Taeil-hyung went yellow.’

‘Shut the fuck up, nothing is as bad as when Taeil-hyung went yellow.’

Taeyong laughs, because it’s kind of true. It wasn’t even blond, which would have looked good, but a brassy in between yellow that Taeyong and Doyoung spent weeks trying to talk him out of. He hadn’t taken kindly to the suggestions given, and both younger men had learnt what true fear meant.

(Financials, for the café. They had done so much paperwork.)

‘Both of you can shut up,’ Taeil says, with his smile that forecasts death. ‘And do the things I’m paying you to do.’

‘We’re working,’ Taeyong gestures to the pile of plates and cups in front of him. Taeil doesn’t look impressed with his answer, so Taeyong shoves the last few items in the dishwasher and turns it on. ‘Coming out, now.’

‘Good, and Doyoung when you’re done with those cupcakes, I need you out front for a little while.’

‘Yes hyung,’ Doyoung nods. ‘Also, can I just say that your new hair is way better than what it was when it was blonde.’

‘Yeah, it looks way better than whatever Doyoung’s got going on his head,’ Taeyong adds with a sweet smile.

‘You two,’ Taeil levels a finger at them and they flinch back, ‘are fucking terrible at flattery.’ He walks over to grab a tray of gingerbread biscuits that Doyoung finished earlier, probably to go sell them to an unsuspecting college student who doesn’t realise how much they’re spending on sweets. ‘And for the record, I look good all the time.’

Taeyong coughs, but follows Taeil out into the main part of the café. It seems that a new wave of students has made its way into the café since Taeyong ducked into the back, some of them weighed down with laptops and chargers, other with nothing more than a giant book and a highlighter.

Either way, he pities them. Experience has taught Taeyong that being a university student is infinitely harder than being a vigilante.

‘I’ll do cakes, you do coffee and when Doyoung finishes, get him on orders while you make the coffees.’ Taeil’s gone before Taeyong can voice his agreement, weaving through the tables with a bright smile and offer of more cakes. It’s not so much a scam as it is clever business sense, but it is still preying on the vulnerable. Not that they seem to mind it.

Still, Taeyong gears up for making what will probably been fifteen americanos, and the inevitable high maintenance orders that will take him five minutes. Doyoung’s out a moment later, with the plate of cupcakes and they share a look of hidden agony. Both would much rather be in the kitchen.

‘Shove,’ Doyoung says, grin on his face as he takes over the register. Taeyong obliges, shifting a few feet to the right so he can start on the coffee machine. Doyoung’s a brilliant baker, and he has a knack for customer service but he always burns the milk and makes the coffee too weak. They’ve tried working on it, but frankly there’s nothing quite as useless as Doyoung in front of a coffee machine.

Sometimes, if they’re really pressed for time, they let him make the teas.

They are making good progress, having always worked well together, and Taeil sends them some sort of proud smile from across the room. Only, the line thins out and they reach the end of the current wave of students, and that end is the one person Taeyong doesn’t want Doyoung meeting.

Doyoung turns to look at Taeyong, his face that semi-impressed expression that he always has on when someone cute turns up at the counter. Taeyong elbows him, mouthing a quick _get back to work_ just as their final customer reaches the counter.

‘Wow, busy day today?’ Jaehyun says. He smiles, and even though it’s directed at both of them, it’s so pretty that Taeyong can’t breathe for a moment. Doyoung must notice because he coughs back a laugh, a sound that snaps Taeyong out of his stupor.

‘Something like that,’ he says, awkward smile stretching across his own face. ‘We’ve got a university promotion going on.’

‘It’s smart,’ Jaehyun says, looking around at the crowded but mostly quiet café. ‘Way busier than usual.’

‘Yeah,’ Taeyong says, voice faint as he finishes another coffee and hands it off to Doyoung. ‘We do the thing, around assignment periods.’ He gestures weakly, not even in any particular direction and can see Taeil laughing at him from across the café, let alone Doyoung being right next to him. ‘Lots of customers, lots of coffee, to make.’

Why did his mouth stop working all of a sudden? He was _fine_ last time he saw Jaehyun.

But then again, last time he saw Jaehyun, the younger (he presumed) man was curled over a laptop and tapping away with exhaustion leaking out of him. This time, he seems well rested and it makes his smile, his eyes, his _everything_ , seem a little bit brighter and more alert. It’s a shockingly good look on him, and Taeyong hates it a teeny bit.

Doyoung clears his throat, ‘Sorry to break this up,’ he doesn’t sound it, at all, ‘but what can we get you?’

Jaehyun’s smile doesn’t dim as it transfers to Doyoung and Taeyong is torn between being envious and relieved. The thing is that Taeyong doesn’t have that natural knack for customer service that Doyoung has, and the two men hit off into a quick and easy conversation about coffee as Taeyong finishes the last few.

It’s the same order as last time, a latte with one sugar, and Taeyong adds it to the list of coffees that he needs to make. But rather than going to sit down, or even to hover slightly out of the way with the rest of the people waiting for takeaway, he stays near the counter.

‘So, it was Taeyong-ssi, wasn’t it?’ he continues. Taeyong nods and feels his ears pink, turning towards the machine so the brunet can’t see his blush. ‘And you’re…?’

'Doyoung,' he says around the names that he's calling out. 'I usually work in the kitchen, but they need all the help that they can get here.'

'Jaehyun, nice to meet you. I thought Sicheng worked here as well? He's not working today?' Jaehyun asks.

Taeyong's heart sinks a bit, realising that Jaehyun's just really nice and really good at remember names.

'Sicheng's coming in later,' Taeyong says anyway, able to swallow down a bit of the nerves and try and move forward. It is better, he knows, to try and come off as a functional human being for the most part. This way, at least, Doyoung might not tease him as much as Taeyong suspects he will.

Ten and Johnny, at least, have forgotten about Jaehyun since that first meeting. Taeyong hasn't, but he's not going to mention it, especially not to them. They're not going to come in today, wanting to avoid the rush of students and the increase of staff within the cafe.

'Cool,' Jaehyun says, 'taking over for any of you or joining the masses?'

'Taking over for Taeil-hyung, he's been running around the store since open,' Doyoung says. Taeyong wishes, just a little bit, that he had a superpower like telepathy so that Doyoung would just go, do something else. Perhaps go deliver some of the eat in coffees.

But then again, then Taeyong would have to talk to Jaehyun on his own, without backup.

That's, that's not an option.

'You staying around to study or you just here to pick up a coffee?' Taeyong feigns casual interest. He misses it by a mile, if Doyoung's smirk is anything to go by.

'I'm not sure, I've got class in half an hour so I might head off around then. Don't have anything to do in the meantime though, so I might just look for some good conversation.'

'Hyung's terrible conversation, zero out of ten would not recommend,' Doyoung laughs. ‘I’m way better’

'I don't know, he's been good so far,' Jaehyun smiles at Taeyong. Again. That stupid, pretty smile.

'Thanks?' he says, feeling his face heat up again. He can feel the judgement radiating from Doyoung, and decides to do what he does best: ignore Doyoung.

(Taeyong is historically rather awful at ignoring Doyoung.)

'You're not a student, are you?' Jaehyun asks.

Taeyong shakes his head. 'I was studying psychology until last year, graduated but didn't really know what I wanted to do with it. Hence, working in my friend's coffeeshop with a massive arsehole as my co-worker.' It earns him an offended Hey from Doyoung, but Taeyong perseveres in his quest to ignore the purple-haired man. 'What are you studying?'

'Art history, actually.'

'That's cool, so you like paintings and stuff?'

Jaehyun laughs. 'And stuff.' He turns to Doyoung, seemingly intent on making sure the other boy stays apart of their conversation. 'What about you?'

'I studied business for a year with Taeil-hyung as a mentor, then dropped out to do culinary school. He remembered me when he opened up this place and offered me a job.'

'So, you make all the stuff in the cafe?' Jaehyun looks intrigued, and Doyoung looks proud.

Fucking Doyoung.

'Yeah, most of it. Taeyong does a lot of the sandwiches, but the cakes and stuff are mine.'

'I'll have to try one someday.’

‘You should,’ Doyoung’s smile is annoyingly genuine, not at all greasy and Taeyong tries not to scowl, or pout.

‘Do you have any that you recommend, Taeyong-ssi?’ Jaehyun’s full attention is back on Taeyong, and he can’t speak for a genuine moment. He doesn’t even know why. Why Jaehyun’s so intent on making sure to spread the conversation, why Jaehyun keeps talking to him even though it’s clear that Taeyong’s a floundering mess.

‘The, brownies, are always good,’ he says, once he’s caught his tongue. This time he’s not only met with Jaehyun’s ever-present smile, but also the smile of a proud Doyoung. It kind of hurts his eyes a little bit, the two smiles together, and he looks away as he finishes up Jaehyun’s coffee.

Jaehyun takes it with a murmur of thanks, sipping it but not moving from his position next to the counter. None of the student seem to mind, so neither Doyoung or Taeyong comment on it as they continue their conversation.

(Or at least, Doyoung and Jaehyun continue their conversation and Taeyong tries to calm his rabbiting heart and running thoughts.)

‘The purple’s kind of bold,’ Jaehyun says, gesturing at Doyoung’s head. ‘Looks good though.’

‘Taeil-hyung is a bit more causal,’ Taeyong explains, ‘doesn’t mind what colour our hair is as long as it’s neat.’

Jaehyun hums. ‘It’s cool, being able to have hair like that. Taeyong-ssi, have you ever done something like that?’

‘He had white hair last year,’ Doyoung is rummaging around his pocket, pulling out his phone to show Jaehyun. The newer boy is interested, and leans over to look at the white and purple hair that Taeyong sported when they first opened the café.

Something flickers across Jaehyun’s face, too fast for Taeyong to catch, as his smile drops for a moment. His face is serious, for the first time in the brief moments that Taeyong has spent around the university serious. It’s not endearing the same way his smile is, but it makes Taeyong’s face heat up just the same.

‘You should do something new with it, go light again.’

Doyoung cocks his head to the side, pocketing his phone again. ‘Jaehyun-ssi’s right, hyung, you should.’ There’s something assessing in his eyes as well, though Taeyong is sure that it’s more likely going to be the potential for teasing Taeyong for today.

Taeyong’s cheeks warm under their twin gazes, and he wishes that he had some sort of escape route. But alas, work and obligations. Instead, he runs his hair through the dark brown that it’s been for the past few months. Since he adopted Haechan at least. Adopted as a sidekick. ‘Why should I?’

‘Because you look good with lighter hair,’ Jaehyun says, voice level. ‘Like, really good.’

Taeyong laughs, loud and awkward and it draws at least three dirty glares from the students huddled over tables. ‘What?’

‘I mean, you look pretty hot in those photos that Doyoung-ssi just showed me. I reckon you’d look good if you dyed it again.’

Taeyong’s cheeks are definitely bright red now and he can feel himself gaping a little bit, thoughts literally running from his mind.

‘Maybe like, a pastel,’ Doyoung contributes, and it enough to snap Taeyong out of his shock.

‘I don’t know… You really think that it’ll look good?’ he asks Jaehyun, who’s looking down at him still with that more serious, intent look in his eyes. 

‘I think,’ Taeil announces from _right behind Taeyong’s ear, what the fuck,_ ‘that I’m not paying you to flirt.’

Taeyong and Doyoung don’t jump, except they do jolt in surprise, because Taeil is a sneaky motherfucker. Taeyong coughs, and looks away from everyone around him. Taeil’s bluntness can be refreshing, but right now it just makes him feel more awkward than he has for the past twenty minutes.

‘Guess I’ll have to flirt with him another time then,’ Jaehyun says, and that sets Taeyong’s heartrate flying up. He’s speechless, again, and he curses himself for not being more prepared in this situation. Give him a car thief or a monologuing bad guy, and Taeyong can deal with it. Give him a cute guy, and he’s a bit more of a mess.

‘He’s free Saturday evening, isn’t he?’ Doyoung looks at Taeil and it’s with that evil smile that all of Taeyong’s friends have.

‘He finishes at four in the afternoon,’ Taeil nods. ‘He likes lowkey stuff, nothing fancy.

Taeyong would argue, or at least protest but literally all his words are stuck in his throat as he watches his boss and his friend organise a date for him. (His friend who was being _far_ more successful with flirting with Jaehyun, might he add?)

‘I’ll see him Saturday evening then.’ Jaehyun returns for to his face, and Taeyong’s so torn because how can anyone be as good looking as Jaehyun? Seriously? He can only nod as the student takes his coffee and walks out of the store.

Doyoung whistles. ‘That is a good-looking man. Pretty smile, good conversationalist, friendly. He’s exactly your type, Taeyong-hyung.’

‘Not quite,’ Taeil says, his own smile curling into something a little sharper. ‘But who knows, he might still hit the arsehole requirement.’

‘Excuse you, my type is not arsehole.’

Taeil’s judging him, and Taeyong stands up to collect some of the empty plates and cups. With Jaehyun gone, it’s like he can be that bit more useful and actually contribute to the store. It’s embarrassing that he can’t do it when Jaehyun is there.

‘Hyung!’ Taeyong looks back at Doyoung, who’s smirking a bit still. ‘Jaehyun-ssi’s not wrong, you should dye your hair again.’

Taeyong shakes his head, as if he’s going to listen to a man he barely knows and the same friend who once hid all his socks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... I may have accidentally started pushing this story towards dojaeyong?? should I stick with it and change the tags or stick to jaeyong and let doyoung be the flirty best friend ~~and save dojaeyong for a sequel~~?


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taeyong signed up to stop muggings and car thieves.
> 
> He didn't sign up for giant robots taking universities hostage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SEMI-IMPORTANT  
> I have updated the previous chapters so that the Hero/Sidekick Names are in Pure Korean. They all mean the same thing, it's mainly to eliminate confusion between Ten the Person and Yeol/Ten the Sidekick (Mark). I've also got a list of the characters and their names in case it's not clear in story. Taeyong uses the names mainly in dialogue. 
> 
> Hana (One) Taeyong  
> Dul (Two) Johnny  
> Set (Three) Hansol  
> Net (Four) ??  
> Yeoseot (Six) Yuta  
> Yeodeol (Eight) ??  
> Yeol (Ten) Mark  
> Yeolhana (Eleven) Haechan
> 
> Again, unbeta'd 
> 
>  
> 
> I'm so sorry about the delay, this fic's plan went through a revamp (hence the chapters have dropped from 14 to 12) halfway through writing this chapter and I needed to both rewrite the plan and the chapter to fix it. Hope you enjoy.

‘Do I get to see it later?’ Haechan says, looking up at Taeyong’s beanie-covered head.

It says a _lot_ about Taeyong that he doesn’t have enough money to fix his washing machine, but he does have enough to bleach and dye his hair. He’s probably a bit trash for cute smiles, and is too easily swayed because Taeyong swapped the dark brown with a pale pink that morning. Thankfully, only one of his many and varied arsehole friends know the reason for the change.

As an ordinary person, changing his hair was easy and he’s already used to the second glances when people realise what the colour it is. As a vigilante, it’s a bit less so. He is trying to get used to the look again, back he was a sidekick he practically lived in hats and medical masks to disguise his identity.

‘Maybe,’ he says from their perch on an apartment roof, looking over the quiet twisting streets.It’s Haechan’s first night out in over a week, finally deemed good enough with ropes that Taeyong doesn’t have to worried if he gets kidnapped again.

‘Please Hyung? I wanna see it, you’ve _dyed your hair_. Mr Always Blend into the Shadows!’ Haechan’s grin is full of shit and Taeyong barely resists reaching over to cuff him lightly on the back of the head.

‘Now you’re definitely not going to see it, because there are more important things for us to be focussing on than my hair.’

Even if it looked good, actually.

Unfortunately for Haechan, it’s another slow night. They jump from rooftop to rooftop with Taeyong’s careful eyes scanning the streets below him. A car thief, a mugging, something lowkey but still interesting would be a great way to spice up their night.

Taeyong would have hoped for a jewellery theft, but The Thief had probably retired young. It had been months since Taeyong had heard of him, and none of the criminal underworld had the same spark The Thief did.

It is a shame, really.

‘Do you think we’re going to find anything tonight?’ Haechan asks, flipping and giggling as he follows a more stable Taeyong. ‘Or is this going to be another parkour training day?’

‘I think it might be more the second,’ Taeyong admits as he lands on top of a convenience store. They might have time to grab an ice-cream or something, at the rate they were going. He was sure the younger wouldn’t mind, he had been grumbling about not getting dessert earlier.

‘Fun,’ Haechan doesn’t sound too disappointed, and bounces on the balls of his feet. Thankfully, he delights in the chase (even if he’s not that interested in technique and motivation and negotiation) and Taeyong can still get a degree of education out of the night for him.

Taeyong’s headpiece crackles to life somewhere between rooftops and he stumbles to a stop at Hansol’s voice. Haechan lands, lighter, and looks on with wide but steady eyes. ‘You need to head to Hongik University.’

‘Got it. How fast?’

He’s already moving to the street level, Haechan a few steps behind him. The younger boy’s caught something in Taeyong’s voice, because he doesn’t argue or even offer a clever quip, for once. Instead, he’s a step behind Taeyong the entire time.

‘Fastest way you can,’ Hansol’s fingers are flying across a keyboard, but his voice remains relatively level as he tells Taeyong which part of the university to head to. Taeyong nods, even though Hansol can’t see him, and goes to find a taxi.

 

 

The most obvious indicate of how used to vigilante activity Seoul is lies in the willingness (or lack thereof) taxi drivers have for carting vigilantes and heroes around. There are a few who refuse straight out, but plenty were willing to take Taeyong when he hailed them down, no questions asked.

This driver has no such discretion.

‘We could have done with more of your type back in my day,’ he says cheerfully as he begins navigating the backstreets of Mapo. ‘But superheroes didn’t really exist back then, or at least there weren’t as many as you young ones today.’

Why was it that when Taeyong needed Haechan’s gift of relentless communication, the boy decided to ignore his silent cries for helpTaeyong might not appreciate the small talk but Hero trained him right and that included respecting non-heroes. So, while Haechan is clearly not interested in that moment, Taeyong makes an effort to talk to the man.

‘We try to do our best now sir, especially for those who couldn’t back then.’

‘Of course, of course,’ the man doesn’t sound biter as he takes a smooth left turn. ‘There are more, what do you call them again, _supervillains_ these days. Back then, it was just people.’

‘There are a lot more these days,’ he agrees, completely at a loss of what to say under the circumstances. He had always been terrible at small talk, it was more of Johnny’s job. He tries to elbow Haechan lightly in the side, but the boy ignores him.

‘That what you’re off for today? A supervillain?’

‘I’m not sure,’ Taeyong says through a smile and gritted teeth, He’s looking out the taxi window, trying to get an early glimpse of what it was that Hansol is so concerned about. The driver doesn’t notice, or doesn’t comment on, Taeyong’s shaking knee or the way his forehead rests on the glass.

‘I suppose you wouldn’t, if you needed a drive in. Do superheroes normally take taxis?’

Only the broke ones.

‘We try our best to minimise any negative impact we may have on the city,’ Taeyong lies through his teeth. Haechan laughs, smothering it down as he finally looks up from the phone screen for a moment before tapping away.

Some of the older groups had things like cars and motorcycles, that did sometimes get a bad reputation when they tore down alleys at night, but really it is because most non-sanctioned heroes and vigilantes don’t get any sort of compensation.

They do it because they’re good people.

Mostly.

‘Good boys, you are,’ the driver nods. ‘It’d be good if people learnt from you lot, to actually do things with your time rather than wasting it on computer games and the like. Young people these days have to get away from the computers and into the real world.’

Taeyong decides not to tell him that hidden behind the driver’s seat, Haechan is checking twitter. Useful and engaged, as always, which is what everyone wants in a sidekick. Taeyong jabs him in the side again, hoping that the boy will pull himself out of the game when they’re on duty. It’s probably something for them to discuss, in a future lesson.

Haechan finally looks up from his game only to whisper a quite _whoah._ The taxi screeches to a stop, ‘I’m going to have to let you off here.’

Taeyong only nods and passes over his T-Money card. It didn’t take them long to reach the courtyard in question, but Taeyong can see why Hansol wanted them there as soon as they could. The square has been abandoned, with the occasional bag and book left behind, and Taeyong can see why.

A massive fucking robot is holding Ten hostage.

The taxi driver evidently decides that self-preservation is more important than small talk, because he hands back the T-Money card and then he’s gone. It leaves Taeyong and Haechan standing in the middle of an empty street.

‘Se-hyung,’ he says, turning on his headset again, ‘what the fuck?’

‘Language, your sidekick is right there,’ Hansol tuts, even as his fingers click across the keyboard. ‘I’m checking it out now.’ Taeyong sees a security camera shift, and is struck again (if somewhat distantly because _Giant Robot_ ) by how much power Hansol has, even in their woefully undersupplied Tech Division.

(He _is_ their Tech Division. And gripes about it at least once a week. Hansol threatens to quit at least once a week, but they all know that he cares too much to go, at least completely.)

‘This is not our speciality,’ Taeyong mutters as the robot waves Ten around, a good ten meters in the air. Taeyong’s not rushed though, not when Ten seems as unruffled and as calm as he always is when he gets kidnapped.

‘I’ve told the others to meet you two, we don’t know what’s going on but we definitely have to fix it.’

‘Hyung,’ Haechan mutters. ‘We can’t fight giant robots.’

‘No shit.’ The robot stomps around, swiping away with the small Thai man in hand. Nothing seems to be damaged so far, but Taeyong knows how quickly these things can escalate.

‘This is big,’ Johnny says, as always the first one to get to a rendezvous. He lands next to Taeyong, cape fluttering slightly but his eyes fixed on Ten’s figure. He’s not exactly tense, is rarely ever so, but there’s a tightness to him that betrays that he’s ready for anything.

‘How the fuck did this happen?’ Taeyong asks.

‘No idea,’ Yuta chips in over the headset. Taeyong can’t see him but he’s no doubt that the last members of their group will get there in a moment or less. They just had to wait for the

‘One minute it was mass exam hysteria, the next it was actual hysteria,’ a third voice chips in.

‘Who was that?’ Taeyong presses the piece a little deeper into his ear, because it is useful no matter what Yuta says. Playing with volume never seems to work as well.

‘Hyung, what’s going on? I need to get in on this?’ Haechan is practically climbing up Taeyong to try and hear what’s coming through the headpiece. Johnny laughs, the smug fuck, Mark doesn’t have a headpiece either but he never deals with that kind of shit.

‘New kid, Net,’ Yuta huffs, he must be attempting to do some parkour. Even though he’s kind of shit at it. ‘I introduced him to you last time, with the kid and the acid vat.’ That guy.

‘I have a name you know, and it’s not the kid.’ Haechan is trying to talk into Taeyong’s ear piece, practically yelling into it, and Taeyong shoves him down with a hissed _stop that_ and shake of his head.

‘Pleasure to fight with you, hyung,’ Net says, obviously laughing at the sidekick from the waver in his voice. ‘And you too, kid.’

As he says it, both Yuta and Net drop down into the spaces next to Taeyong and Johnny. Yuta’s a bit red, a bit puffed, and Net doesn’t look that much better if Taeyong’s being honest. Both executed the landing with grace, but it was the run that seems to have drained them.

Taeyong acknowledges the newer hero with a small nod, but looks ahead at the robot again. Having an extra person would be beneficial, especially in this situation, provided they work well enough with the rest of the team. Sure, a giant robot wasn’t necessarily the sort of villain you wanted to test your teamwork against (petty thieves were generally preferable) but it was certainly an experience nonetheless.

‘This isn’t even our shit to deal with,’ Taeyong grumbles. ‘Does our insurance cover this kind of stuff?’ Johnny shook his head, not that he even needed insurance. This was why Taeyong sticks to street level crime, easier to lie to doctors about.

‘No-one else can mobilise in time,’ Hansol answers, ‘unless we wait for f(x) and that’ll take a few hours.’ Almost in tandem, Yuta gives a kind of half-shrug, the one he used to use when they lived together and Taeyong asked who finished the milk without recycling the carton.

(It was always Yuta who finished the milk, without recycling the carton. The bastard.)

‘Does that mean we can fight the giant robot?’ Mark, in comparison to Yuta and the new guy, lands with grace, poise and not a breath betrays him being winded. See? Perfect sidekick.

‘Hana-hyung,’ Mark’s grinning under his mask, and it’s frankly adorable. Why can’t Haechan appreciated him at least an iota of how much Mark seems to appreciate him. ‘You made it. Isn’t this great? We haven’t fought together in ages.’

‘Yeol-hyung,’ Haechan sounds _far_ too delighted to see the other sidekick. ‘I didn’t know you were going to be here.’

Mark turns a shade of light pink.

‘Yeolhana. Be nice,’ Taeyong mutters before he greets Mark, ruffling the younger boy’s hair lightly. ‘What do we know about the robot?’ The others would have been here earlier, if they’d been the ones to alert Hansol and Taeyong needs all the information he needs.

‘Big, robotic and seems to like … Ten, was it?’ Net says. He points to Ten, who is somehow still smiling as he talks to the robot. Unfortunately, for something so large, there’s no resonance in the robot’s voice.

‘Do we have ears on him?’

‘None.’

‘Hyung,’ Haechan cuts in, eyes wide and round as he looks up at Taeyong. ‘Does that mean we get to get close to it?’

‘… We are, you aren’t.’ Taeyong ignores Haechan’s slight pout to turn to Johnny. ‘Why is it that your boyfriend is perfectly capable of getting out of that, but won’t?’

Johnny gives a small smirk. ‘He’s a deadline coming up.’

‘… Of course he does.’ Taeyong leans back out a bit, the robot has moved around a bit. It’s leering at some of the people who haven’t made it out of the courtyard. ‘It couldn’t have just been a simple bank robbery, now could it?’

‘It never is,’ Johnny says with a heavy sigh, as if he’s not an alien with super strength and invulnerability. ‘I’d punch it, but then it’d just drop Ten.’

‘Okay,’ Taeyong lets out a heavy sigh. ‘We’ve got numbers on our side, but we know next to nothing about it.Yeol and Yeolhana,’ he turns to the two sidekicks, ‘you guys are on observation this time. We’ll put you on the radio with us and with Set-hyung, if there’s anything that might be useful, just let us know. Try to get as many out of the courtyard as you can.’

‘Got it,’ Haechan gives a little salute. ‘We’ll be sure to get the citizens out.’

‘Will you please shut up about that?’ Mark hisses.

‘But Yeol-hyung, we have to give the citizens the respect they deserve, as citizens.’

‘… It’s not funny.’

‘Actually bro, it kinda is,’ Johnny volunteers. Mark’s adorable and extremely harmless glare shifts to him. This is why Johnny and Haechan should pair up and Mark and Taeyong can go off on their own. Neither of them deserve this kind of treatment.

‘Maybe we should make sure that we get the _attention_ of the _citizens_ , eh hyung?’

‘I said it one time, _one time_ ,’ Mark looks up, as if there’s someone who can save him from the irritant that is Haechan. There’s no-one, Taeyong’s checked several times.

‘And that one time will haunt you forever,’ Haechan slings an arm around Mark’s shoulder with a grin. ‘Hyung, don’t give me that face. I know I’m your favourite co-sidekick.’

‘You’re my only co-sidekick.’

‘Okay, just, go,’ Taeyong says, pointing away from the robot. ‘And no fighting.’

They leave with a little bit of grumbling, Mark trying to pull away from the younger sidekick. At least the two don’t know each other outside the battlefield, Taeyong would feel so guilty if Mark had to put up with Haechan more than he had to.

‘As for the rest of us,’ he turns to the fully fledged and qualified heroes in front of him. ‘Yeoseot and Dul,’ he turns to the two powered superheroes. Johnny’s already starting to hover, looming too high above the rest of them, and Yuta cracking his knuckles and rolling his shoulders as if he wasn’t telekinetic, ‘you guys are fringe, again. Net and I will try talking to him, and if that doesn’t work then we’ll run distraction and you guys work on extracting Ten and taking him out.’

He didn’t know about the new hero, but he knew that he was useless against a giant robot. So, he had to do what he always told Haechan not to do, engage with the villain.

It’s not Taeyong’s best plan by a mile, and Johnny’s cocked eyebrow is evidence enough. But it is a plan, which is better than what the others have contributed so far, and Johnny can go fuck himself. He’s working with what he’s got, a robot he knows nothing about and a potential new partner who can keep up with Taeyong’s gymnastics.

 

 

Yuta and Johnny have melted into the shadows by the time Taeyong and Net walk across the courtyard. He hopes they look somewhat intimidating, but he knows they don't. For one thing, both of them are tiny compared to the robot and for another, Taeyong’s still wearing a dark beanie with a bobble to cover the slivers of pink hair that threaten to escape.

Net, at least, does have a decent costume that isn’t obviously made of activewear.

‘What would you say is your _motivation_?’ Ten is in the middle of asking when Taeyong finally steps into hearing range. He looks up at the robot, and waits for a beat or three patiently. He’s used to it already, and Taeyong wonders how long he’s been interviewing the robot for.

‘Fun, mostly,’ the robot doesn’t sound too upset by the questions. Not that robots can really express emotion through their voices. It sounds a little bit too much like Text-To-Talk, rather than a distorted voice modifier. ‘Not enough going on in the world, you know.’

‘So instead you decide to take over a university?’ Net calls out. Taeyong winces, because the robot’s head immediately swings around to look at the pair. There’s another pause, and then it steps closer to them.

‘Well, what do we have here. Hana and a friend. I was hoping you’d come.’ 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that wasn't too much at once, I decided to split the chapter to lessen the amount of information being thrown at you in one go. Battle with the Robot in the next chapter which I hope to have up asap~


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taeyong never starts the fight, but he's always the one to finish it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Un-beta'd 
> 
> I wrote this in one sitting so I hope it's okay!

‘I was hoping for a few more people, but I can deal with this,’ the robot says. Its voice is a drone, halting as it jumps from syllable to syllable but there is somehow a level of excitement to it. ‘My name is …’

‘The Almighty,’ Ten chips in. ‘We decided on The Almighty.’

‘Thanks, Ten-hyung.’

‘The _Almighty?_ Ha!’

Taeyong tries to shush Net. Tries. No-one ever listens to Taeyong these days, fucking hell. At least with Haechan, Taeyong can ground him afterwards. But there’s no way for him to do that with the new guy.

‘Excuse me?’

‘It’s just, it’s a pretty shit name.’ Net grins up at the robot. Taeyong can’t see much of the other hero’s face, and he suspects that the robot can’t either, but he can see the gleam of teeth and a smile that is too broad and eager. ‘The Almighty, makes it sound like a teenager came up with or something.’

‘Don’t engage,’ Taeyong hisses as he follows Net. ‘This is a massive risk, and it’s stupid.’

‘Pretentious as well,’ Net continues. He ignores Taeyong (everyone ignores Taeyong) and strides closer.

‘I’ve never heard of you,’ the robot rotates where it stands, eyes focussing on the tall, black-clad hero.

Net’s still grinning, and Taeyong can’t see his eyes in the dim light. He’s willing to bet that there is a glint of misplaced bravery. This, _this_ is why Taeyong hates working with new people. It’s a liability, letting them run off and do what they want when they clearly don’t know what they’re doing.

‘Net, I’m the new guy.’

The robot repeats the name back, tilting his head to the side slightly. ‘I would say it’s nice to meet you, but I’m not sure if it is.’

‘Likewise,’ Net says as he leans against a bench, looking up at the robot in front of him. He’s not tense, not ready for anything and Taeyong can see that in the relaxed slouch of his shoulders. He’s an amateur playing a game that even Taeyong (with his years of experience) isn’t quite prepared for.

He’s going to get someone killed, one day.

‘So you’re not fond of my name, any other criticisms?’ the robot asks. Ten looks torn between taking notes, and genuinely being afraid of where he was standing. Whilst before he had worn the carefree, bright grin that was so uniquely Ten, he was now a bit more unsure, lips pressed tight.

He was in danger now, and everyone knew that.

‘Not too keen on a lot of you I mean taking control of a university courtyard? For what, a bit of general terror? It’s not got much going on for you right now.’

‘You have an excellent point.’ The robot straightens up again.

‘Yeah… wait, what?’

Net doesn’t have a moment to breathe before the robot swipes out with his free arm. Net jumps out of the way just in time, but the robot hits the bench and it goes flying across the courtyard.

 

 

‘Shit,’ Taeyong’s running forward, closer to where Net and the robot ar. ‘Kids, how’s evacuation going?’

‘It’s going,’ Mark’s voice sounds strained through the radio. ‘We’ve got about four people out and away from campus, but there are some people under a table about five metres away from you.’

Sure enough, the courtyard isn’t as abandoned as Taeyong had hoped. There are two girls, probably undergraduates, crouched under a textbook-covered park bench. One has her hand pressed over the other’s mouth, and they’re both looking at Taeyong with genuine fear.

‘Dul? Yeoseot?’ He can’t see either.

‘I’m above you, almost directly,’ Johnny says, and sure enough when Taeyong tips his head back he can just make out the fluttering of Johnny’s cape. ‘Yeoseot’s at your two o’clock.’

Taeyong nods.

The robot’s hand snatches out towards Net again, the rookie hero rolling out of reach. Taeyong has about two and a half minutes to think of a new plan, provided that Net can keep evading the large, but surprisingly quick, robot.

He folds his hands together in front of him, sucking in a deep breath. Everything he does is easier than this, knock out the thief or disable the weapon, Taeyong doesn’t _deal_ with this kind of thing. But put them in a group and Taeyong’s the one that has to think of the plan, the one that can see the angles and the tricks.

He can do this.

He’s not built for it. But he needs to think of something, he needs to take charge.

‘The girls under the table are our first priority,’ Taeyong says, words tripping of his tongue as his eyes scan the dimly lit courtyard. ‘I’ll try and draw the robot to Yeoseot’s side of the courtyard. Kids, get everyone out as soon as you can. If there are more people than the girls, you let me know immediately.’

The sidekicks hum in agreement and Taeyong begins to slink his way across the yard, away from the table and keeping to the shadows. Both robot and rookie hero are distracted, but they’re too close to the trapped girls and blocking the best exit.

‘Dul, stay where you are. You’re coving the kids.’ He ignores Johnny’s spark of protest, cutting the American hero’s voice off in a second. ‘I don’t care. _They_ are your priority right now, not Ten. You get the kids out and make sure that they’re not harmed. Anything comes close to them, you come out and you fight them off.’

The robot picks up another bench, deciding that trying to catch Net is a failed idea. He throws it across the courtyard, and it crashes into the ground and splinters everywhere. Net rolls out of the way, and the idiot almost seems to laugh. It’s like he’s enjoying the destruction.

‘And me?’ Yuta’s voice has lost all playfulness, all the cheeriness that Taeyong is used to. He appreciates that.

‘Yours is Ten, we need him out of there with minimal injuries. Once Ten is clear, we need to try and find a way to shut it down. I’m thinking that we can cause it to short out or something. Or crush it, if we need to.’

His eyes trace the entirety of the courtyard again. From the sidekicks crouched behind a corner in preparation to run, to Johnny floating above their heads with that bird’s eye view of the space. He can see Ten gripping onto the robot’s hand, yelling but unheard as Net and the robot talk back and forth. Finally, he searches for Yuta.

Taeyong can barely make out the shadow of his friend, but he knows that Yuta has his back. He knows all of them have his back.

‘As of right now,’ he says, clearing his throat, ‘we’re treating Net as a rogue element. And we will be discussing this in debrief.’

‘Fair enough.’ He doesn’t know who says it, but the voice is flat and unimpressed. No matter what happens today, Net is definitely going to go on some sort of probation program.

 

 

‘HEY!’ Taeyong lets his voice rise. Both Net and the robot turn to look at him. ‘Both of you, stop this now.’

The robot laughs, a dead syllable that is on repeat for too long. ‘I don’t think I will, this is quite fun, actually.’

‘No,’ Taeyong repeats. ‘This enough, what is the fucking point of it all?’

The robot turns to Taeyong. ‘Because I can. Because I want to. And because he’s ruining it.’ He points at Net, who’s looking less confident and more winded.

‘Then why aren’t I ruining it?’ Taeyong challenges. ‘Come on.’ He opens his arms, as if he could fight the robot in front of him and actually win. He holds absolutely no illusions that he can, and hopes (knows) that Yuta won’t let him die if something goes wrong. ‘You know who I am, don’t you want to have a go?’

The robot starts walking towards Taeyong, the ground shaking with every step that it takes. ‘I suppose I do. I mean, you’re the famous Hana.’ The robot’s steps are almost dragging, pulling out the moment that it takes for it to cross the courtyard. Taeyong’s eyes dart behind it, watching as the smaller figures of Mark and Haechan duck forward to get the two girls. ‘It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t try to flight you.’

‘It—’

‘Fight,’ the robot breaks through, ‘sorry. Autocorrect.’

‘… the fuck,’ Taeyong whispers under his voice, but he tips his chin up to continue drawing the robot towards him. ‘Fine then, you and me. I’m better than that newbie, aren’t I?’

‘Probably,’ the robot agrees. ‘I mean, this is what it’s about right. Fighting the good guy, I’ve kind of wanted to, ever since May.’

Taeyong laughs. ‘If you’re looking for something similar to May, it’s not happening. But I’ll try my best.’

(May was a mess of blood and tears and a sort of evil that Taeyong had not been equipped for. But he managed it, with three weeks of recovery.)

‘NO!’ Net’s voice cuts through their conversation, and Taeyong’s face drops into a resigned sigh. The newer hero pulls something out of his pocket and fires it off, it’s small and sharp and Taeyong can’t see it.

Fucking idiot. Taeyong curses as the attention is drawn off him again, and towards the rookie hero.

The robot can however, and swats it out of the air in dead silence. It’s not talking, whoever controlling the voice stopping in that moment to turn back to Net. It storms forwards, arms drawing up to smash something and in that moment, lets go of Ten.

‘Yeoseot,’ Taeyong breaths out in warning.

Yuta’s already on it, stepping out of the shadows with a hand raised in front of him. There’s nothing visual, nothing physical for them to see but he catches Ten a few feet of the ground. His brow is furrowed, control tense through his body as he lowers Ten to the ground.

Taeyong has always been a little bit jealous of Yuta’s power.

‘You okay?’ Tayeong jogs over to Ten, checking for any injuries. Yuta joins him a moment later, making sure that his telepathy didn’t squeeze Ten too hard. Ten shakes off their concern, telling them he’s fine.

There’s a loud creak, and Taeyong turns to see the robot ripping a streetlamp out of the ground. He’s watching Net, focussed on the hero and throws the pole forward towards him. Taeyong breathes a sigh of relief when Net dives out of the way.

Only to realise that Mark and Haechan were right behind him with the two girls they were trying to evacuate.

‘Yeolhana!’ he yells. Johnny dives to protect them, but the best he can do is try to deflect the pole as the kids drop to the ground, pushing the girls out of the path. ‘Shit. Fuck.’

Taeyong can’t _breathe_.

‘Ten, get yourself and the girls out, now,’ he rasps. He doesn’t even finish it as Ten flashes forward, running to grab the girls by their arms and pull them out of the way. He can hear Yuta yelling something at Net, can hear Johnny checking on Mark and Ten.

Haechan’s on the floor, and he’s not moving.

‘Get up,’ he says, stumbling forward. ‘Get up.’ He can’t afford to do this, can’t afford to waste this time. ‘Come on.’ He can’t drag his eyes away from the boy on the ground. ‘ _Get the fuck up_.’ Haechan’s face screws up in pain and the boy sits up, hand on his head.

It’s not great but it’s not awful, and Taeyong feels relief course through every inch of his body.

‘Dul. Throw that thinking fucking back at it, now. Yeoseot, I don’t care what you do but you hit it from the other side,’ he says. ‘End it, now.’

They listen, because for all the amount of shit that they give him? They know when to stop playing.

Taeyong barely notices when the robot creaks to a stop, impaled on the streetlamp and crushed by a statue of an old graduate. He barely notices Yuta running after him, or Johnny landing on the floor, or Ten returning.

He notices Haechan, who wiping a bit of blood off his forehead. He notices the wince of pain and the way his sidekick’s eyes are screwed up. He runs over to the teenager (because he is a child and Taeyong is so, so stupid for having let both of them be a part of the fight) and smooths his hands over Haechan’s body.

‘Hyung, I’m fine,’ Haechan whispers. ‘I promise you, it’s just a small bump to the head.’

‘You’re sure,’ Taeyong presses in close. ‘You’re sure that I’m fine.’

‘Did the girls get out, that’s more important.’ Taeyong nods, but doesn’t speak because in that moment they weren’t. He forgot they existed.

‘I… I’m…’

He notices Net.

‘What the fuck was that?’ Taeyong steps away when he sees Haechan wince, his voice probably too sharp even as the words are flat and cold. He glances back to the boy, only giving Net his full attention when he is sure that Mark and Johnny are looking after him.

‘I’m sorry.’

‘That’s not what I asked,’ he scoffs and pulls of his beanie. Taeyong rakes thin, cold fingers through the length of his hair as he looks at the man in front of him. ‘What I asked was what happened there?’

‘I… don’t know, I just wanted to distract it.’

‘I told you, don’t engage.’ He steps forward, not caring that Net is both taller and broader than him. ‘I told you and you didn’t listen. And when I tried to take its attention off you and away from the civilians, you do it again!’

Yuta and Johnny are watching, stony faced, as Taeyong sucks in a deep breath. He looks around himself, trying to break the irritation and fear and adrenaline that is coursing through him. But he can’t because everything had gone so wrong, thanks to this cocky kid who had approached them.

‘This is a team, and we’re built on communication and listening to each other. We’re aware of our surroundings and we know where everyone is at any time. You want to be a part of this team? You need to be able to do that.

‘These kids? They’re learning from us because they need to learn to fight, what stances to use, how to come up with a strategy on the fly. They don’t need to be taught to listen and to follow plans. You shouldn’t either.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Net repeats, looking down at his feet.

‘It’s not about being sorry, it’s about being smart. This isn’t a three strikes and you’re out situation,’ Taeyong fixes a cold glare onto Net. ‘If this happens again, go find some other team to join. Or better yet, fight on your own because you seem to like doing that. You’ve been given a number because the others agree that you’re good enough so far. But I’ve yet to see any proof of that. Show it to me, or you’re out.’

Net nods and Taeyong turns away from him. Haechan still looks a bit unsteady, and Taeyong helps him to his feet.

‘Get this cleaned up for Set-hyung,’ he says to Yuta and Johnny, voice low and as steady as he can keep it. ‘I’m taking Yeolhana back to the safehouse.’ The other two boys nod, silent in the face of Taeyong’s anger as he leads his sidekick away.

‘Hyung?’ Haechan asks as Taeyong flags down another taxi. His voice sounds strained, and Taeyong hates how that pain in it sits in his stomach. ‘You’re not going to make me do my homework after this, are you?’

Taeyong laughs, soft and a bit bitter but still amused. ‘No, kiddo. Not tonight.’

‘Good.’ Haechan smiles before freezing. ‘What about tomorrow?’

‘That’s on you, we’re off-duty tomorrow.’ Haechan looks up in confusion. ‘I’ve a date.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that was okay! It's quite a serious chapter within the grand scheme of things but don't worry next chapter we're going back to our regular programming of everyone being mean to Taeyong. 
> 
> You guys looking forward to the date?
> 
>  
> 
> (Also I totally forgot to check last time -- to those who vaguely remember, should I use the new or old summary?)


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaehyun and Taeyong go on their date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took a looong time, I apologise~ 
> 
> Finally some non-superhero-y stuff and the brief appearance of my main man Sicheng~ 
> 
> Also today is the day that I start classes again, so we're either going to get even slower updates (sorry~ D: ) or quicker updates thanks to pure boredom and procrastination.
> 
> EDIT: I'll post this in the next chapter for those who might miss it, but **non-dream members** have been aged up two years (ie 95-lines are about 24, but Haechan is still 17 years old)
> 
>  
> 
> ALSO massive, massive, massive thank you for the 100 kudos <333

Taeyong has long since learnt not to let his personal and professional life cross over. So, although he’s distracted during his shift, he does his best to keep soldiering forward like he always does. If Doyoung notices, he doesn’t say anything about it and just pulls out trays of cookies that Taeyong nibbles at in his spare moments.

It’s days like this that makes Taeyong appreciate the fact that although his friends are arseholes, they’re his friends for a reason.

Despite skirting around the events of the night before, with Taeyong refusing to tell Doyoung exactly what was up, they manage to keep up the banter that bounces between them. If Taeil were here, he would be extremely disappointed in the pair of them. But Sunday afternoon was one of Taeil’s days off, and he wasn’t around to see his employees doing significantly less work than they were hired to do.

‘I can’t believe you actually dyed your hair pink,’ Doyoung says as he walks past Taeyong, plate of cakes in hand.

‘You were the one that said I should dye it.’

‘I didn’t think you’ll actually do it though,’ Doyoung protests. ‘I just said it because it made you blush.’ He stops for a moment and his smirk is disgusting, full of pride and tease and everything that makes Taeyong take back any sentiment of Doyoung being a good friend. ‘I bet you can’t wait for Jaehyun to see it.’

‘No! I… just… it wasn’t…’ Taeyong scowls and walks out from behind the counter to go clean up the tables. ‘Why are you even working today? It’s not busy enough for two people.’ He gestures to the handful of students who decided to brave the cold to go to a café and study rather than in their homes.

‘Sicheng’s on the closing shift tonight, and Taeil-hyung wants me to supervise,’ Doyoung says. ‘Because, you’re going to be on your _date_.’

‘Doyoung-ah,’ Taeyong says with a heavy, heavy sigh. ‘Keep talking about that and I will kill you,’ he warns.

Doyoung laughs. ‘Hyung, you like me way too much to kill me.’

It’s annoyingly true, he lets his friends get away with too much and now they just walk all over him.

‘Just, shut up,’ he says, shoving plates into Doyoung’s hands. ‘What did I do to deserve you in my life?’

‘I don’t know, but it must have been something miraculous. The best deed to ever have been done.’

Taeyong snorts in amusement, wiping down the table before moving to the next. ‘Yeah right.’ It was probably something terrible he did by accident as a child, like stepping on a puppy’s tail or cursing at someone who didn’t deserve it. Something unspeakable, that caused him to be saddled with Doyoung for the past five months at the café, and countless years before that.

‘Speaking of your date, he’ll be in here in about ten minutes, won’t he?’ Doyoung follows Taeyong into the kitchen, dumping the dirty cups and plates in the sink. ‘Are you ready for it?’

‘I don’t know,’ Taeyong shrugs, untying the apron from around his waist. ‘I’ve not exactly been on one of these in the last little while.’ It was easier when he was still studying and meeting new people. But since he left university, it was more and more difficult to meet people within the friendship groups that he had formed over the past years. Anyone he met these days, bar Haechan, he met through Johnny or Yuta.

Jaehyun, by comparison, has the potential to be a refreshing change.

‘It’ll be fine,’ Doyoung says, smoothing down Taeyong shirt and fluffing his hair. ‘Just try not to get tongue-tied when he speaks to you. Aigoo, you had to wear this shirt didn’t you?’ He tsks, but just brushes Taeyong down as they walk out into the main part of the café.

‘Stop that,’ Taeyong hisses as he tries to dodge Doyoung’s hands. Curse the other man for being taller and having longer limbs than Taeyong. ‘Can’t you just let me live?’

‘Nope,’ Doyoung says as he shoves Taeyong forward.

Sicheng, who must have arrived in the few minutes that Taeyong and Doyoung were in the kitchen, watches with wide eyes as they make their way through the store.

‘Sicheng, don’t trust him, okay?’ Taeyong calls over his shoulder. ‘He’s a liar and a cheat and a very bad person.’

‘No, I’m not, and Sicheng knows it,’ Doyoung scolds Taeyong. The Chinese exchange student shakes his head, turning back to the counter and ignoring the pair of them. Taeyong would be insulted if not for the fact that Jaehyun is right outside the café.

Jaehyun picking him up from work seemed like a brilliant idea, until it actually happens. In this moment, Taeyong realises that it was actually an awful idea and he should have arranged to meet the younger man at a later time, so that he could shower and make himself seem less like a mess.

His shirt is still a bit crumpled from when he stuffed it in his bag that morning and the scent of coffee is clinging to him. Taeyong had planned wear it as a fresh change of clothes, but unfortunately an incident involving a four-year-old and a hot chocolate had ruined that. He’s got smudges of exhaustion from last night’s fight under his eyes, and he forgot to wear his shoes with a thick sole so he’s a good inch shorter than he normally appears.

In comparison, Jaehyun just seems to be one of those people who look beautiful all the time. His hair is unstyled and he’s just wearing a shirt and jeans, but he looks so damn good. Taeyong smooths down his shirt for what must be the eighth time all day.

(Why didn’t Doyoung tell him to hang it up or something? What is the point of being an interfering friend if you don’t interfere?)

‘Hey,’ Jaehyun grins as Taeyong walks out of the café. ‘You ready to go?’

Yeah,’ Taeyong rasps out, before clearing his throat with a cough. He can do this, he can be a functional human person on a date. His friends say that he’s cool, sometimes, occasionally.

(They don’t.)

Surely, there is something about Taeyong that Jaehyun likes enough to ask him on a date. And hopefully that something isn’t merely because of his looks, if he’s honest.

‘Have a good time,’ Doyoung coos, obnoxious as ever. ‘Bring him back by nine, and remember, I’m not ready to be a grandparent.’

‘Shut the fu— Shut up,’ Taeyong shoved Doyoung lightly. The younger man barely budges. ‘Go annoy Sicheng or something.’

‘Don’t you dare!’ Sicheng calls from the coffee machine. Taeyong is almost impressed by Sicheng’s hearing, is almost jealous of him.

‘That’s not as fun as annoying you.’

‘You know what?’ Taeyong turns to Jaehyun. ‘Let’s just go, please.’

‘Okay, okay,’ Jaehyun laughs, waving at Sicheng (did he know the other barista? Did he know everyone that Taeyong knew? He hoped not) and nodding once at Doyoung. ‘Let’s get out of here.’

‘Jaehyun-ah!’ Doyoung calls. ‘I’m serious, don’t let him near any puppies. Or he’ll just try to take them home with him.’

‘… really?’ Jaehyun ignores Doyoung, a trait that Taeyong appreciates in a date. ‘Dog lover or something?’

‘A bit,’ Taeyong admits as they walk away from Doyoung’s cackling laughter. ‘I had a few growing up.’

‘Not now?’

‘My apartment is too small,’ Taeyong tries not to pout, but it kind of comes naturally to him. So instead he looks away with pink cheeks, ‘and I don’t have the time to look after one right now.’

‘Maybe one day?’

‘Hopefully.’ Definitely. Taeyong can’t wait, to be honest. When he’s older and richer in time and money, he’s going to try a dog at the first opportunity. He smiles, can’t help it when he thinks of puppies and the ones he left behind at home.

Jaehyun is silent, and Taeyong turns to him.

‘What?’

‘Nothing.’ Jaehyun turns to look forward, but his own lips are curled up into a slight smile as well. Taeyong can’t help but feel like he was the reason for the smile, and he can’t help the slight flush that washes over him. ‘Now, about our date…’

Taeyong hums lightly, curious.

‘Normally I’d suggest a cup of coffee or something at a café, but I’ve a feeling that you’re probably a bit sick of that.’

‘Just a bit.’

‘Plus, the best café in the area does contain Doyoung-hyung. So, I was thinking, we get some snacks from a convenience store and have a mini picnic type thing? Is that okay?’ Jaehyun flushes a light pink, and Taeyong realises that for all his confidence and smiles? Jaehyun’s probably about as nervous as he is.

‘Sounds good.’

 

 

They end up spending, as most young people do, way too much on snacks at the convenience store. The university student behind the counter, a bored girl a few years younger than them, had given them this half unimpressed look as she scans packets of chips after packets of chips. Taeyong suspects the remaining half of her just didn’t care about anything to do with her job at all.

Jaehyun pays for the food before Taeyong can offer, so Taeyong refuses to give up the two bags in hand as they make their way towards Noeul Park. It’s edging into the end of October, with the weather cooling down and sunset occurring earlier and earlier, but it’s pleasant enough as they walk along the twisting streets of Mapo.

‘You’re not a student, are you?’ Jaehyun asks, turning to look at Taeyong as they walk. 

Three months ago, Taeyong might have been embarrassed when he had to answer the question. ‘No, not anymore.’

He waits for some sort of judgement from Jaehyun, but the taller boy hums and looks ahead again. ‘It’s not a lifestyle for everyone, as much as they try to make it seem so.’ Jaehyun sounds relaxed but Taeyong can tell that there’s something in the boy’s words.

Taeyong releases the breath that he didn’t realise he was holding. It’s a sensitive topic.

‘I’m glad you think that,’ he says, small smile on his face as he looks up.

‘Oh?’

‘Not, everyone thinks that, even if they know why,’ he admits. Jaehyun looks curious, and gestures for Taeyong to continue. The topic is one that he needs to get out there before he gets too deep. ‘I had, maybe, a year left? Taeil-hyung was already planning to open the café and needed fulltime staff, so I left and decided to work for him.’

‘Just like that?’ He’s not sounding judgemental, which Taeyong appreciates in that moment.

‘Just like that,’ Taeyong lies.

‘What were you studying?’

‘Commerce, or at least that was what I was enrolled in.’

‘Didn’t like it?’

Taeyong hesitates. ‘Taeil-hyung has the head for business, you know? That’s why he was able to run and finance the café so soon after he graduated. But, I enrolled and I was doing decently, but I never, _got it_ the way that other people do when they love it. And it just seemed like a waste to spend the rest of my life doing something I hated.’

‘That’s really cool.’

‘… really?’ Taeyong raises an eyebrow.

‘Yeah, like, you knew what wasn’t working out for you and you did it? Even though it wasn’t the easier path, and people weren’t that encouraging you still decided to do what you thought was best for you.’

‘Thanks,’ Taeyong says, looking up at Jaehyun and he can’t help the relieved smile that works across his face. Jaehyun flushes, a light pink, and coughs to look away again. It’s cute. ‘What about you? You said that you were studying?’

‘Art History,’ Jaehyun grins. ‘It’s my first year studying actually. I’ve always had a love for it but never thought to study it until quite recently.’

Taeyong would have guessed that Jaehyun was a second or third year student, knowing that he wasn’t that much younger than Taeyong. But it wasn’t uncommon, Taeyong and Taeil had both completed their mandatory service before starting university, and had been a little bit older than their classmates.

‘Art History? That’s pretty cool,’ Taeyong says as they finally reach the park, choosing a quiet piece of lawn to claim as their own. Jaehyun takes the bags from him and spreads out the food, eager little smile on his face. ‘How did you get into Art History in the first place?’

‘To be honest, it started because I had a love of pretty things, didn’t really appreciate it beyond the aesthetic and the price at first.’ Jaehyun gives a sort of half-shrug. ‘But then I spent more time looking at art and in museums and I really came to be interested in more of what it meant and stuff. So, when I decided to go to university, that’s what I decided to study.’

‘It’s good you’re doing something you love. Passion is so important when you’re studying, or doing anything really.’ Taeyong was happy where he was now, but he hoped that in time he would be able to find something that he enjoyed to the degree that studying it didn’t make him want to rip his hair out.

Jaehyun’s smiling at Taeyong, looking up at him slightly from where he’s reclining on the grass. If the sun wasn’t hidden behind a feeble cloud above them, Taeyong might have said that Jaehyun shone as bright as it. But really anything would be brighter than the sun under the circumstances.

‘What,’ he mutters, crossing his legs as he drops down next to Jaehyun.

‘It’s nice hearing you talk,’ Jaehyun admits, opening a packet of chips. ‘You’re always so quiet when I try to talk to you, but when you’re in your element, you just … light up.’ 

‘Seriously?’

‘In the café,’ Jaehyun continues. ‘I’d seen you around a bit and wanted to talk, honestly it took me a few times to say more than latte-one-sugar, to you.’

‘No way,’ Taeyong snorts. ‘You’re telling me that _you’re_ shy around me? You? With your winks and your grins and your oh-you-should-dye-your-hairs?’

‘I have a habit of covering nerves with bravado.’ Jaehyun smiles again, and this isn’t the broad, beautiful one that Taeyong has seen multiple times since their first proper meeting. This one is smaller, _sweeter_.

Taeyong likes looking at this smile, and he might say it’s his favourite because something about this smile feels like it’s his.

‘You don’t have to be nervous, you know,’ Taeyong says, as if he’s not been a half-stuttering wreak since he first laid eyes on Jung Jaehyun.

‘Fine, neither of us will be nervous, we’ll just talk.’

(Taeyong’s split because on one hand he’s excited and he wants to relax and get to know Jaehyun without pressure. On the other, talking is _hard_.)

All Taeyong must do is choose a nice, easy topic for them to talk about that isn’t going to be as awkward as Taeyong is.

‘You never did say anything about my hair,’ he says, because he’s an idiot.

‘It’s really nice… Not that I doubted it would! But you look really,’ Jaehyun _actually_ blushes again, ‘pretty.’

Taeyong’s blushing as well; stupid sweet art student boys and their stupid sweet words.

‘So, you think I should keep it that way?’

‘Yeah,’ Jaehyun coughs. ‘Definitely, it looks, really good.’

It’s nice, lying there and talking. They work their way through their snacks and they talk and Taeyong is awkward as anything but Jaehyun doesn’t seem to mind. Instead, he kind of does this half laugh and picks up the thread of conversation with ease.

Taeyong can’t help but wonder, at the back of his head, how long it’s been since he had such a carefree conversation. Either his friends and he are trading barbs, the way that is only possible with the depth and length of their friendships, or they’re walking on eggshells with each other. Thankfully it’s been less of that in recent months, especially since Haechan joined Taeyong on the job.

They’ve moved on to talking about favourite TV shows (Taeyong finds out that Jaehyun lived in America, and doesn’t need subtitles for Western sitcoms and Jaehyun finds out that Taeyong enjoys period dramas when he has the time) when Taeyong’s phone starts buzzing against his hipbone.

‘Sorry,’ he repeats, pulling it out to hang up when he sees whose number is on the screen. ‘It’s Doyoung, he wouldn’t call unless it’s an emergency.’ Probably they clogged the machine again or something, which isn’t ideal but Taeyong can talk them through fixing it.

Jaehyun just smiles and nods, allowing Taeyong to stand up and take his call.

‘What’s up?’ Taeyong asks.

‘ _Hyung, we just got a phone call for you.’_ There’s something in Doyoung’s voice that Taeyong can’t place, sharp and quick.

‘What’s so important that you had to call me?’

‘ _It was from the RA at your younger brother’s school. They want you to pick him up and take him home_.’

Taeyong doesn’t have a younger brother, he’s pretty sure that Doyoung knows that. Then again, the younger might not remember, Taeyong only knows a handful of information about his friends’ family. It’s probably a wrong number or something, and he’s sure that once Doyoung calls them back, he can go back to his date with Jaehyun.

‘ _They say that … Donghyuck’s fell out of bed this morning and hit his head. They don’t want to send him home with a concussion unsupervised._ ’

Taeyong doesn’t know anyone called Donghyuck, and he doesn’t know any high school kid dumb enough to get a concussion falling out of bed. It sounds like the worst cover up ever.

Wait.

Fuck. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dun dun duuuuuh, u guys thought haechan was okay haha
> 
>  
> 
> sorry I can't write Jaeyong without something going on outside of it guys~
> 
> I'm thinking of writing a prequel to this, just a one-shot, but set about six months prior? Would anyone be interested in me writing it? I've some ideas but are there any interactions people would like to see?


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taeyong goes to pick Haechan (Donghyuck?) up and meets the dream team.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I TOTALLY FORGOT TO PUT THIS IN THE LAST CHAPTER  
>  **non-dream members** have been aged up two years (ie 95-liners are about 24) but **dream** members are the same age as irl at the time of writing (ie 00-liners are about 17). 
> 
>  
> 
> Fun fact guys, one of my lectures is rly boring I get about 1000 words written between notes, so we're looking to finish this soon (I say as I play with the number of chapters again, I'm sorry guys! pacing has really changed compared to the initial plan. I think we should be definitely be in the 13-14 chapter range but I'm still not 100% sure!) 
> 
>  
> 
> Unbeta'd

Jaehyun is sweet enough, once Taeyong stutters out his apologies and excuses, and promises to text within the next day. The sun’s beginning to set low over the river, so Taeyong wraps his scarf around his neck and jogs to the subway. It shouldn’t take me too long to get to the school, if he can get his transfers in on time, but that doesn’t stop the nerves from washing over him in the moments between.

He shoots a message off in the group chat, asking the others to move the debrief to tomorrow morning so he can get Haechan, _Donghyuck_ , sorted out. Hansol practically lives on his phone, so Taeyong’s not surprised when Hansol replies within a minute with confirmation of the new time.

‘Can you or Sicheng cover my morning shift?’ Taeyong asks Doyoung when he calls the younger boy back. ‘I need to sort out what’s happening with Donghyuck, especially if he’s got a concussion.’ Still has a concussion, because it’s been hours already since he probably got it.

‘No worries, I’ll call Taeil-hyung and sort it out for you.’ Taeyong’s friends are actually useful sometimes, and that’s why he does appreciate them through their idiocy. He mutters his thanks as he works his way onto the train, hanging up as it draws away from the station.

He doesn’t know much about Haechan’s school, having needed Doyoung to tell him the name of it. He knows some of the curriculum, thanks to Haechan’s complaining and a short search on Naver, but he doesn’t know where it’s located or even what year Haechan is in.

Taeyong realises, with a little bit of an ill feeling, that Ten and Johnny were right every time they said that Taeyong didn’t know enough about Haechan. The boy is a brat, rude and uninspired to learn, but he is sweet, and funny, and most importantly he is Taeyong’s brat.

He cares, not that he’d ever tell anyone that.

The transfers between trains go as smoothly as they can, Taeyong’s fingers tapping a quick beat against his thigh as he waits through the rush of people. Anyone knows that Saturday nights are bad enough on public transport, but add in the panic of Haechan having a concussion and Taeyong’s ready to fight the entire Seoul Public Transport System to make it more efficient.

(It’s already a ridiculously efficient system, but Taeyong’s ignoring that for the time being.)

By the time Taeyong arrives at Haechan’s school, it’s been a good forty-five minutes. In that time Taeyong’s organised the patrol shifts for the next week, agreed to work on Thursday in exchange for Taeil working tomorrow, purged the list of people he follows on Instagram, called the school to tell them he was on his way, and reached level ten on a new game he downloaded.

It still wasn’t enough to fully distract him.

The school looks like how Taeyong remembers his old high school, squat grey blocks and large open sports fields that are hauntingly empty on a weekend. Almost nothing is lit up, shadowed and abandoned, apart from one sole building across campus and Taeyong is willing to bet that’s the dormitory.

There are a couple of boys, not much older than Haechan, kicking a soccer ball back and forth in the dim light outside the foyer. One is obviously more enthusiastic than the other, merely kicking the ball back. The more enthusiastic one is letting out laughter akin to a dolphin’s squeal as he chases after the ball.

They pause when Taeyong approaches, the ball rolling to a stop, and the more enthusiastic kid is letting out small puffs of exhaustion.

‘Are you Donghyuck-hyung’s hyung?’ the more excited boy asks, he has a strong accent like Sicheng and Yixing.

‘We were told to wait for you,’ the calmer boy continues, putting a hand on his friend’s shoulder to try and stop the bouncing. He’s got a similar accent. Both boys are far away from home, and Taeyong can’t help but both pity and admire them. They’re awfully young. Up close, he’s pretty sure that the calmer one is a bit older, but that is all he can infer from the boys so far.

(He had been younger, when he started as a sidekick. Not that had seen himself as young at the time.)

‘Yes, is he okay?’ Taeyong asks as he follows the boys through to the escalator. Neither boy has introduced themselves, but he wouldn’t remember their names anyway. There is only one thing that he is concentrated on in that moment.

‘He’s a bit dizzy,’ the older boy says, tripping over the words a bit before pushing forward. ‘We waited to see if it would get better in the afternoon, but it’s getting really bad.’

‘How sensitive is he to light and sound?’ Taeyong asks, brow set into a serious frown as they make their way up to the room. ‘And where’s your teacher?’

‘Han-seonsaengnim was needed by one of the other students,’ the older boy says. He mutters something in Chinese, evidently aimed at the younger boy because the younger boy nods before jogging down the corridor. ‘Donghyuck’s pretty out of it, we’ve had the blinds down all day and we’re trying to keep the volume down… but, well…’

‘It is a boy’s boarding school,’ Taeyong nods. Even if the majority were respectful of his sidekick’s concussion, there was undoubtedly going to be something that made it worse.

‘Exactly.’

‘Has he been checked by the school nurse?’

‘Not yet, he’s not in on the weekend so Han-seonseangnim did some first aid shit and said to wait for you to see what you want to do.’

‘Fair enough,’ Taeyong says, although his face hasn’t shifted out of the frown. It isn’t acceptable that so many underage students are left unprotected over the weekend, even if he knows that the teachers are also trained to deal with such situations.

Waiting so many hours to call him, even if it was a surprise to Taeyong, wasn’t acceptable in his opinion. And he is definitely going to make sure that the teacher knows that, when the man finally arrived.

For now, however, Taeyong is led to a door with another two boys lingering outside. More nameless students for Taeyong to forget about as soon as he’s taken Haechan, _Donghyuck_ out of the school. Except…

No…

Taeyong pats down his hair rapidly, wishing that he had thought to pack a beanie or a cap for the day. But he doesn’t, and his pink hair is exposed to the world and hopefully Mark might not have seen it last night. Because Mark is standing down the hallway, talking to another boy who looks to be around his age.

He’s pretty sure that he didn’t take off his hat in front of the sidekick.

Mark may know Hana, but he doesn’t know Taeyong. It’s a difficult game, playing with secret identities and that’s why Taeyong’s team only keep their identities from their sidekicks.  And as much as Taeyong likes the younger sidekick, he also knows that it’s Johnny’s choice when Mark gets to find out who they all are.

Taeyong approaches the pair, eyes darting from person to person as he waits for Mark to see him. It’s an understatement to say that Mark is expressive, so Taeyong knows that if Mark does recognise him, it’ll be with a loud gasp and probably a bit of flailing arms.

Thankfully, there is no loud _ohmygod_ and potential of anyone being accidentally hit in the face. Mark’s eyes are wide, but he hasn’t got any sort of familiarity in his gaze, and instead he’s just _worried_.

Haechan’s never talked much about the social aspect of school, he’s either brave or stupid sneaking out to fight crime when he’s got so many students around him.

Or his friends are really unobservant.

It’s potentially both.

‘Are you Donghyuck’s brother?’ Mark asks, taking the lead of the small group of teenage boys huddled around the door. The boy that led Taeyong through the school goes to stand with his friends, and Taeyong is struck with the horrifying idea that he is far outnumbered by teenagers.

‘Yes,’ he nods. ‘Lee Taeyong.’

Mark introduces himself, before gesturing to the boy that had been waiting with him. ‘This is Jeno.’

‘I’m Renjun,’ Taeyong’s guide says with a slight blush. Mark gives him this half-glare, but Mark’s a puppy and it looks more adorable than intimidating. If Taeyong wasn’t so worried about Haechan, _Donghyuck_ he was _Donghyuck_ now _,_ he might have cooed. Not that’s he’s sentimental. ‘Chenle went to go get Han-seonsangnim.’

As if on cue, the boy appears around the corner.

The one thing about Taeyong’s deceptively cold expressions (at least according to Yuta, who calls Taeyong a soft puppy) is that Taeyong’s great at intimidating people when he needs to. When Han-seonsangnim arrives, a stout man who looks like he shouldn’t be in charge of the hundred dormitory students, Taeyong pins him with the most unimpressed glare he can.

‘You must be Taeyong-ssi,’ Han-seonsangnim says, faltering under the weight of Taeyong’s eyebrows.

‘Yes,’ Taeyong says, he can see the students are all exchanging those little gleeful expressions when a teacher gets told off, ‘you called my workplace about Donghyuck?’

‘We didn’t have a current handphone number.’

‘I’ll be sure to update it as soon as I can,’ Taeyong says. ‘Is there much I have to do right now to take Donghyuck home with me?’

Han-seonsangnim shakes his head as the students press their lips together, and Taeyong hopes they won’t laugh. The youngest looking one, Chenle, has pressed the side of his face against Mark and Taeyong’s willing to believe he’s probably as expressive as his friend.

‘You just need to sign him out at the front desk. I’ll bring it over to make it quicker, I’m sure the boys can help you pack Donghyuck up.’

‘Be fast,’ Taeyong’s eyes haven’t shifted from Han-seonsangnim’s face. ‘I don’t appreciate things being drawn out unnecessarily. And call me a taxi.’

He doesn’t bother waiting for a reply, twisting Donghyuck’s door open and stepping into the room. It’s lit by a single dim lamp, casting a dull yellow glow over the two-bed room. One is empty and untouched apart from a few photos above it, Donghyuck’s curled up on the other. There’s a low hum of a slow piano song coming through some speakers, turned down enough that it’s barely noticeable, and Donghyuck’s fingers are tapping out the notes.

‘Hyung,’ he looks up when Taeyong enters. ‘I didn’t know they were going to call you. I’m sorry, I know you were probably busy.’

‘Don’t be,’ Taeyong keeps his voice low as he smooths down Donghyuck’s hair. ‘I’m glad they called me, even if they took a long-ass time to actually get around to doing it.’

Donghyuck actually looks surprised at his words, and Taeyong feels a flash of guilt. He smooths a hand over Donghyuck’s hair again.

‘Stay here, hyung’ll pack some stuff for you,’ he says, moving over to the closet that Donghyuck’s friends are crowded in front of.

They’re arguing on what to pack, dropping t-shirt after t-shirt into a backpack and, of course, nothing useful.

‘I’m guessing you guys know more than your teacher about what happened this morning,’ Taeyong says as he grabs some of the essentials.

They nod. Some of them back out of the way, giving Taeyong more space and he flicks through the closet to get what he knows he doesn’t have at home.

‘He’s been like this all morning,’ Mark volunteers. ‘None of us heard him when he fell out of bed, but it mustn’t have been that bad. We didn’t notice until a bit after breakfast, he was really woozy and stuff.’

‘Sounds like I need to take him to a doctor,’ Taeyong thinks that Yixing might be in Korea (he always seems to be when the rest of his team is in China and vice versa) so hopefully the older man would be able to help. Ten would probably know.

‘Thank you for being here for Donghyuck,’ Taeyong says with a small smile, directing the words at Mark.

‘I mean, we’re his friends,’ Mark flounders slightly, cheeks turning slightly pink. ‘Not that we’re really close, I mean we are but we’re not… I want to be?’

‘We’re his friends,’ Jeno interrupts, leaning against the wall whilst the others fuss over homework. ‘Not that we could do much to help or anything, no-one’s been allowed in his room all day.’

‘Really?’ Taeyong’s brow furrows a little bit.

‘Han-seonsangnim said,’ Jeno shrugs. ‘We couldn’t really do anything, though we snuck in some chocolate bars earlier when Han-seonsangnim wasn’t looking.’

Mark coughs awkwardly but Taeyong can’t help the small bark of laughter. It’s the most teenage thing ever but he appreciates it, especially if Donghyuck’s been locked in a room on his own all day.

‘I’m sure he appreciated it,’ Taeyong looks to where Donghyuck’s sitting, pressed up against the wall, smiling as Renjun and Chenle’s whisper next to him.

(‘Ge, he needs _this!_ ’ ‘No, he doesn’t? I’m the one in his classes, he doesn’t need his biology notes yet.’ ‘But what if he wants to read about pollination or something?’ ‘… I’m sure he can search it if he’s desperate.’)

It doesn’t take them long to pack everything once Taeyong’s taken over the clothes. He’s had to swap at least three caps for pants and underwear, thanks to the kids’ contribution but he’s pretty sure he’s got it all sorted out.

‘… Taeyong-ssi,’ Mark says as their small group makes their way back down to the front of the school. Donghyuck looks stuck up with his sunglasses on at night, but Taeyong’s not taking any chances. ‘Could I have your number? So that I can keep updated on how Donghyuck is?’

‘Of course,’ Taeyong smiles, reciting his number as the sidekick types it into his phone. It’s Taeyong’s real number, the one he rarely gives out compared to the burner phone he uses for his vigilante adventures, and he can’t help but hope that one day Mark will use that one too.

‘Hyung, you don’t need to worry,’ Donghyuck’s small, small voice cuts through them, looking up at Mark with a slight pink tinge.

_Interesting._

‘I want to make sure you’re okay, you know,’ Mark says, voice serious and Donghyuck nods as the older boy continues on. ‘And I know you won’t tell us what’s going on. It’s bad enough that we don’t know what’s going on with Jaemin, so we need to know that you’re getting better.’

‘Okay,’ Donghyuck says, looking down at his feet. Taeyong can’t help the grin that curls across his face, something bright and furious at seeing Donghyuck in such a different light.

It takes a minute or less for Taeyong to sign Donghyuck out, wondering how the school had permission for him to sign Donghyuck on file, before they pile into a taxi. Donghyuck’s friends are sweet, almost like they’re waving him off for war or something and wave at the taxi until it turns the corner.

‘So… Donghyuck,’ Taeyong tries the name out on his tongue again, the name having more weight than that of Haechan. ‘That’s, not what I expected, to be honest.’

Donghyuck buries himself into the seat and then looks up at Taeyong. ‘ _Hyung,_ ’ it’s whiny but not in the way that it is when Donghyuck wants something, ‘why is Mark-hyung so nice?’

Taeyong laughs, muffling the sound with his hand. He can’t help but wonder what will happen when Donghyuck finds out who Yeol is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To follow standard protocol, there will be a sequel focusing on Markhyuck and the Dream Team (as well as Taeyong and Donghyuck's relationship from Donghyuck's side) after this fic haha. (and that will have Jisung in it, I'm so sorry I don't think he'll make it in this fic) 
> 
> Hope that was all right and didn't drag on too long. 
> 
> ALSO our babies are wearing hats again, I'm sensing the dream comeback is close(ish) :') you guys ready for that?


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Donghyuck begins to integrate himself into Taeyong's life beyond patrol.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd, as usual~ 
> 
> This is my longest chapter yet, so hopefully it doesn't drag too much~ Also I'm really sorry, I'm fully aware of the fact that the tone has shifted to a more serious tone as the story goes on, I hope y'all don't mind where this is going. 
> 
> Just a small translation that the Yo mentioned in the first half of the chapter is the Korean equivalent of a Japanese Futon.

Taeyong’s home is in one of the quieter parts of Mapo, not close enough to the universities to be student accommodation, and his neighbours consist of a landlady with a handful of cacti, a divorcee whose debating moving to Japan, and an annoying baker who sings obnoxiously loud in the morning. Out of his three neighbours, only one of them is actually nosy.

(Hint, it’s the annoying baker.)

He’s glad for the seclusion, when he leads Donghyuck up the stairs to the small two room apartment he’s lived in for almost five years. There’s no-one to comment on the sunglasses clad teenager as he moans and mutters.

Taeyong’s completely concentrated on getting Donghyuck into his apartment that he doesn’t even realise that someone’s standing outside his apartment door until the man clears his throat.

‘Donghyuck-ah,’ Taeyong says, the name feeling _strange_ on his tongue, ‘this is Lay-sunbae.’

Yixing smiles kindly at Donghyuck, whose mouth has fallen open slightly. The boy stutters out something, a mix between Korean and gobbledygook as he bows in surprise. Donghyuck’s always been a fan of EXO, but he’s never met any of the alien heroes before.

‘Call me hyung,’ Yixing says as he bows slightly to Donghyuck. ‘Taeyong-ah, should we head inside? One of your colleagues called me, said you might need something checked out?’

‘He’s a concussion,’ Taeyong explains as he unlocks the front door, giving it the small shove it needs to open. Neither Yixing (too polite) or Donghyuck (too concussed? too star-struck? Taeyong doesn’t know and he’s a bit worried) comment as Taeyong flicks on a few lights and lets them into the small living room.

‘Of course,’ Yixing smiles as he leads Donghyuck over to the couch, gently moving Taeyong’s pile of paperwork aside. ‘Concussions are difficult though, I can’t heal them fully, just ease them.’

‘That’s fine, hyung. Anything will help,’ Taeyong says as he moves Donghyuck’s bag into his bedroom, small but comfortable enough for the boy. Yixing nods again, this time turning his focus onto his patient and away from Taeyong.

Taeyong spares another look at the pair on the couch before heading outside again. He slips on a pair of rubber slippers, curling his feet at the cold, before going up the flight of stairs next to his front door. Sometimes, it’s a curse living this close to the aforementioned annoying baker, but sometimes it’s a blessing. Especially when Taeyong needs to borrow something.

He knocks on the door, three fast raps as he bounces on the spot. He should have put socks on, even if they would have looked awful with the slippers.

Thankfully, Doyoung opens the door almost immediately and Taeyong shuffles into the warmth of his friend’s apartment. There’s no judgement, no snark in Doyoung’s eyes as he follows Taeyong through to the kitchen.

‘Is he okay?’ Doyoung asks. He had sent Taeyong off with a laugh and a smile mere hours ago, and the seriousness between them isn’t unusual, but is unwelcome.

‘Yeah, he’s got a concussion and we’re getting it checked out now.’ Doyoung nods, passing the cup of tea that he always seems to have ready for Taeyong. ‘I was wondering if you had still had that spare Yo?’

‘Ah, yeah,’ Doyoung nods, padding through to his bedroom. Taeyong follows, leaning against the doorframe as he looks into Doyoung’s bedroom. The apartment overall is a bit larger than Taeyong’s, not that noticeable at first glance, but Taeyong can see the difference between their room layouts and organisation.

It works for them, however, both being relatively clean and minimalist in style. (It does help for Taeyong that he has an apartment and a safehouse, his items spread across both.) Doyoung only just decided to buy a bed recently and it is pressed against one wall, as if he can’t decide where to put it.

‘Thanks, for your help today,’ Taeyong says as he takes the heavy blanket in his spare hand. ‘I wouldn’t have been able to get anything done if you hadn’t helped.’

‘That’s what I’m here for,’ the younger man says as he lifts out the Yo. ‘It mustn’t have been fun, getting that phone call from me.’

‘That’s an understatement,’ Taeyong exhales as they begin making their way back down the stairs. ‘I think I probably would have started crying in the park, if Jaehyun hadn’t been there to calm me down after it.’

(It had been embarrassing, Jaehyun talking Taeyong down and telling him it was fine to go. He ignored Taeyong’s heaving breaths and walked him to the edge of the park, and didn’t seemed to be turned off at all by how much of a mess Taeyong could be.)

‘How’d it go, the date?’ The words have got the edge of a smirk to them, the laugher of a teasing friend pressed against a concerned one. It’s a weird situation to be in, Taeyong knows distantly, where he’s got the potential for something _great_ juxtaposed against the something potentially awful. Still, Taeyong appreciates the distraction. 

‘Good,’ he smiles into the mug of tea, hoping that Doyoung doesn’t see it, because it’s _soppy_. Taeyong doesn’t do soppy, especially not in front of people who will hold it over him until he dies. ‘I was able to talk to him, which is always a positive.’

Doyoung laughs. ‘Small steps, hyung, small steps.’

‘But it was nice, we just talked for a little while, got to know each other better.’ Taeyong hoists the blanket up higher as he unlocks his front door again. ‘He didn’t judge me for leaving university. He said he’d text me tomorrow and we can organise another time to meet up when Donghyuck’s better.’

Both of them hope that will be soon.

Both of them also know how bad a concussion can be.

They shuffle back into Taeyong’s apartment, trying to keep the noise down as Yixing and Donghyuck talk on the couch. Donghyuck glances at them when they walk in, freezing at the sight of Yixing, but the healer just directs Donghyuck’s attention back to him.

‘He’s so young,’ Doyoung murmurs with a shake of his head. ‘He’s at a boarding school, isn’t he? Are you going to send him back?’

‘I’m not sure yet, definitely not when he’s concussed.’

Doyoung hums in agreement, as Yixing steps back. It’s solemn between them, and Taeyong hates it. He’s never been great at breaking the tension, however. That’s what Yuta and Johnny are for.

‘All done,’ Yixing announces as he turns to Doyoung and Taeyong. ‘He’s going to need to rest for the next little while, nothing that can aggravate the concussion and make it worse. I suggest just keep an eye on him where you can.’

‘Thanks, hyung,’ Taeyong says, walking over to the exhausted looking boy on his couch. ‘He’s good to go to sleep?’

‘Should be fine, just make sure that you’re close if there’s any nausea when he wakes up.’

It’s orders that Taeyong’s used to and he thanks Yixing again when the man prepares to leave the apartment. The older man just smiles and waves, as always genial and gentle. Not all teams work well with each other, but Yixing’s always been willing to help Taeyong’s team out when they’re injured.

He’s probably the favourite member of EXO across all the superhero teams in Korea, and some in China.

Donghyuck’s still looking at Doyoung when Taeyong goes back into the living room. They’re having something of a silent standoff, and Taeyong supresses a laugh because Doyoung is starting to look a bit intimidated.

‘Donghyuck-ah,’ he says, walking over to the younger boy. ‘This is my friend and neighbour, Doyoung. He’s just upstairs and if you ever need his help, feel free to annoy him into it.’ Doyoung shoots Taeyong a betrayed look, but Taeyong ignores it.

‘Hyung,’ Donghyuck says, voice still soft, ‘do we trust him?’

‘With the kitchen? Yes. With the television? Absolutely not.’

 

 

The next day, Taeyong and Donghyuck take a taxi across Mapo. Donghyuck’s still wearing sunglasses, but this time they’re something of a fashion statement. By which Taeyong means that they’re bedazzled and fluorescent green.

‘Did you have to wear those?’ Taeyong hisses as they make their way down a tiny alley. ‘this is a professional meeting, not a party.’

‘ _Hyung_ ,’ Donghyuck’s still concussed but he’s definitely got his attitude back. ‘It’s my first time at a debrief. I have to dress to impress and hide my identity at the same time. This is a win-win situation.’

Taeyong’s fairly sure that’s not how it works. But he knows better than to argue with Donghyuck about it.

‘Do you want me to introduce you as Haechan or Yeolhana?’ he asks. He’d never told the others what he called his sidekick, but that was when Taeyong thought that Haechan was his real name. It feels both weird and good, knowing Donghyuck’s real name, like a fresher start with the sidekick.

‘Maybe Haechan?’ he says, looking up at Taeyong through the bug-eyed glasses. ‘I mean, Yeol-hyung calls me Haechan and you know that means that Dul-hyung definitely knows.’ Taeyong bites back a laugh, it’s not a difficult assumption to make.

‘Okay,’ he nods as he reaches the gate to the small house that Hansol has called his own for the last few years. ‘Just remember though, if they ask you anything that makes you feel uncomfortable, you don’t have to answer them.’

‘Thanks, hyung,’ Donghyuck whispers as Taeyong keys in the entry code.

It’s been a while since they’ve had something that required a proper group debrief. Normally they shoot off a text or two to Hansol and the job is considered done, but with this so called Almighty, things are a bit different.

Taeyong just hopes that it’s not overwhelming for Donghyuck, especially with his concussion. It’s one thing to jump around at night and play the part of the superhero, but it’s also logistics and discussions and strategizing. It’s about time the boy got to see the serious side of the work.

‘TY!’ Yuta screams from the front door. ‘You’re fucking late, hurry up!’ And of course, that is helped by the always professional Nakamoto Yuta. The Japanese hero jogs down the stairs to meet Taeyong and Donghyuck, smiling broadly.

‘Whatever you do, don’t trust a word he says,’ Taeyong warns as Yuta slings an arm around his shoulder.

Yuta, it appears, is not dressed for a debriefing at all. He’s wearing what looks like dirty track pants and a tank top-flannel combination, and his hair is pushed back with a headband. Taeyong’s willing to bet that he woke up minutes before Johnny arrived that morning. Already, the hope that this will be a productive, professional meeting is beginning to drift away.

‘Nonsense, I’m the best one here, kiddo,’ Yuta grins at Donghyuck over Taeyong’s shoulder. It’s a frankly terrifying smile, if Taeyong’s honest (which he always is), too broad and sharp in the corners and ready to expose all of Taeyong’s deepest secrets.

‘I’m sure you are, Yeoseot-hyung.’

Donghyuck shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near Yuta, perhaps Taeyong can keep them on opposite sides of the room or something like that. Taeyong’s fought a dinosaur before (once, when he was a sidekick. He spent more time cheering on Xiah than he did fighting the dinosaur, or backing up Hero. No-one had been happy that day.) so keeping his teenaged sidekick away from his oldest friend shouldn’t be too difficult.

Mind you, Donghyuck and Yuta have one thing the dinosaur didn’t.

Determination.

‘Call me Yuta, no-one calls me Yeoseot in my own home.’

‘This isn’t your home, it’s Set-hyung’s,’ Taeyong mutters. It just earns him a look of complete disbelief from Yuta, who shakes his head. ‘You just stay here like every second night.’

‘ _Hansol-hyung_ says it’s our home,’ Yuta says with a deliberate sniff.

‘He’s lying to you.’ Taeyong slips his shoes off, walking through the house to the dining room, where they’re supposed to be set up for the meeting.

They’re not.

Taeyong had been clinging to the slightest bit of hope that this was going to be fine. Even with Yuta’s pyjamas, and the dropped formalities, he had hoped that they were going to have a degree of professionalism during the meeting.

Everyone’s here already, but not a single person seems to be ready to break down the attack. Hansol’s still in his pyjamas as well, and he’s sitting next to Johnny in front of the couch in the middle of the living room. They’re both hunched over, eyes fixed on the TV and Taeyong is fairly sure they’re playing Fifa or something else.

Ten’s sitting on the couch, one hand is combing through Johnny’s hair lightly, and the other is holding his book. It appears to be a novel of sorts, one of the books that Ten uses to expand his Korean reading skills. It’s working, if Ten’s scathing articles in the university magazine is anything to go by.

The last member of their meeting is sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table, and he smiles up at Taeyong when they enter. He’s the only one wearing full costume in the room, paired with a dark hoodie to make it a bit more casual. Taeyong levels Net with a steady glare, using the full force of his eyebrows to cause Net’s gaze to drop back down in shame.

Rightfully so.

‘Oh my god,’ Johnny drops his controller, causing Ten to start in surprise. ‘Bro, did you _dye_ your hair again? How did I not see that last time?’

‘Didn’t you hear about it?’ Yuta grins as he slips past Taeyong. ‘He did it for a _boy_.’

‘Shut up, both of you,’ Taeyong hisses, combing thin fingers through his hair again. He’s gotten used to it already, after a handful of surprises when he caught his own reflection. He forgot that his friends hadn’t seen it yet.

‘It’s _cute_ ,’ Johnny coos, and Taeyong feels his cheeks flaming up under his friend’s eyes.

 ‘Last I checked, we’re supposed to be doing work,’ Taeyong says, dragging a cushion to sit on the floor as well. Yuta drops down as well, and Donghyuck stands unsure for a moment before Ten pats the couch next to him.

Ten murmurs a hello to the boy, who sits primly on the edge of the couch as if too afraid to settle in comfortably. Donghyuck gives a little half bow, it’s sort of adorable.

‘You just walked in, Taeyong,’ Hansol says as he turns off the game ‘We weren’t going to start without you.’

Despite their teasing tones, all of them shift forward, moving into a more alert position as they settle around the coffee table. Hansol’s got a few tablets spread out for them and Taeyong picks one up to check the videos from that night.  

‘Was everyone okay after what happened on Friday night?’ Taeyong asks, looking from member to member. ‘Nothing to report on the injury front apart from Haechan’s concussion?’ He can’t help casting another glare at Net, who’s looking down at his lap from his own position.

‘Yeol had a slight bruise on his side from the fall, but nothing severe,’ Johnny says, shrugging lightly. ‘Apart from that, we were all right.’ The others give a small murmur of agreement, letting Taeyong release a bit of the tension that had been sitting in his stomach since he found out that Donghyuck had been injured.

‘Do we know what it was? This so called, Almighty?’ Taeyong directs the question to Hansol before spinning to Ten. ‘Speaking of, what the fuck was that with the name?’

‘He was pretty nice, when we were talking. He wanted to have a name, and I thought why not.’

‘It was a giant robot in the middle of the University!’

‘He wasn’t hurting anyone,’ Ten gives a sort of half-shrug, ‘then.’

‘Doesn’t mean you should just chit-chat with him,’ Taeyong shakes his head.

Ten doesn’t look apologetic, but he never ever does in these situations. Taeyong’s fairly sure that Ten has _no_ sense of self-preservation whatsoever.

‘Chit-chat,’ Johnny snorts. ‘You’re such a grandfather sometimes.’

Taeyong presses his eyes closed for a moment, taking a breath before turning back to Hansol. The older man, thankfully, takes the cue and connects his tablet to the television, bringing up photo of the robot.

‘I’ve only had a brief look at it, but it looks like a similar robot to the one that they used a few weeks ago. The circuitry is fairly similar, and they appeared to use the same control set up.’

Taeyong doesn’t have an eye for mechanics like Hansol does, but he can see some similarities in the metal and the shape from the photos that Hansol’s flicking through.

‘Do we know who’s in charge?’

‘Not yet, it’s got some sort of signal that is used to transmit between it and wherever the controller is. But I’ve not managed to get it working because someone threw a pipe through the middle of it.’

Johnny gives a sort of unapologetic shrug at that.

‘Do we have any guesses on who it might be? Usual suspects or anything like that? Something big like this has got to be a group.’

‘It’s too focussed for something like Pentagon or SF9,’ Yuta starts, counting off the known active villain groups that they’ve encountered in the past few years. ‘They’ve got enough players that it’s just not worth the effort, building one big robot for a bit of general destruction.’

A couple of them hum in agreement, a slow, low sound that gets passed around. Taeyong runs through as many of the possible suspects as he can. Whilst they don’t have much petty crime anymore, Korea’s a hotbed for the bigger villain activity.

‘What about an older group? KNK?’

‘Not their style,’ Net says for the first time since Taeyong arrived. It sounds like he needs to take a moment to speak, clearing his throat as he looks Taeyong straight in the eye. ‘They’re more corporate corruption than terrorising students.’

‘What about that other group? The ones that don’t really want to hurt people, but like causing trouble?’ Johnny asks. ‘There’s six of them, one’s _really_ pretty.’

‘Astro,’ Ten says, not even offended at Johnny’s words. Taeyong wants that kind of relationship security one day. ‘They could work actually, I’ve been held hostage by them a handful of times and they’re friendly? Like The Almighty was.’

The more they think about it, the more accurate it sounds. Astro aren’t _evil_ per se, not in the way that some of the other groups could be, but they fit the sort of attitude that the robot had. There’s a brightness to them, a friendliness to them, that has always set off their super villain persona.

‘Then we consider them our prime suspects for now,’ Taeyong nods as he notes it down. ‘We keep an eye out for them, and we keep an eye out for any suspicious robot activity.’

‘If you do see it again, let me know,’ Hansol says, carding his fingers through his hair. ‘I should be able to develop something that tracks the signal, but it needs to be active.’

‘And, _please_ ,’ Taeyong sends another look at Net and then Donghyuck, ‘don’t engage, we’ve got better strategies than letting it get angry.’

Net nods, ashamed, and Donghyuck presses his lips together. He seems to have learnt his lesson about this at least. Taeyong just wishes it hadn’t been under such terrible circumstances.

‘We need to sort out patrols,’ Taeyong says once they’ve sorted out as much as they can from the Robot situation. ‘Net, you’re officially under watch,’ the masked hero nods, ‘I’m not letting you patrol on your own until you can prove to me that you’re able to do it without endangering other people. Johnny, can you and Yeol take him tomorrow night?’

‘Sure thing,’ Johnny says, small smile on his face.

For all that Johnny picks on Taeyong, they all know that Johnny’s probably the best at mentoring in their little group. Johnny and Mark will be good for Net, and also give Taeyong a bit of time to cool down before they patrol together.

‘Speaking of,’ Yuta says, ‘where is Yeol today?’

‘He’s got an Histroy essay due tomorrow morning, so he’s working on that.’

‘Pfft, what a _nerd_ ,’ Donghyuck can’t hold back his giggles, and Taeyong levels his sidekick with a glare. ‘Wait, _shit_ , so do I!’

‘What.’

‘I think I have an essay due tomorrow morning.’

‘Ohmygod,’ Taeyong hisses, ‘get up, we’re going.’

‘You have to finish your essay.’

‘…’

Taeyong pointedly ignores Johnny and Yuta’s laughter as he looks to the what is supposed to be innocent smile that Donghyuck is directing at him.

‘Have you started this essay at all?’

‘… yes?’

‘I did not sign up for this, ohmygod,’ Taeyong pushes away from the coffee table. ‘You guys sort out the patrols, we’re going.’

‘But Lay-hyung said that I shouldn’t do any strenuous activity!’

‘Now!’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact, this is actually one of the chapters that sparked the story. In the initial plan, Doyoung was _only_ going to be Taeyong's neighbour who judged him for coming home at 3am every day and commented about Taeyong's broken washing machine whilst Taeyong tried to move Donghyuck in. 
> 
> Also, just for funsies: who do people think the giant robot is controlled by? I've a feeling that some 'reveals' are going to be obvious as anything, but I'm hoping there's still an element of mystery to my bad guy haha. I'll give you a hint, they've been at least mentioned so far.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taeyong gets way too many visitors in the cafe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the week long delay on this~ I thought that once I got the prequel out, I'd be good to go for this chapter but uni attacked. I'm still in the depths of heavy assignmenting, so chapter 11 might be delayed until the 9th of September/later, sorry~
> 
> The prequel is not a necessary read for the entirety of the story (please correct me if I'm wrong) but I do recommend reading it either before or after chapter ten if you haven't already.

‘Hyung, what do you think I should do?’ Taeyong asks.

Taeil stands behind the counter of the café, rearranging the displays of cakes and biscuits that Doyoung had slaved over that morning. He looks up at Taeyong, a single unimpressed eyebrow rising, before turning back to the cakes in front of him.

‘ _Hyung_ ,’ Taeyong doesn’t whine.

‘I own a coffee shop. I literally don’t care about you and your problems Taeyong.’

Taeyong takes back anything he’s ever said about Taeil being a decent human being.

‘You’re meant to be the responsible one, the one that gives advice,’ he pushes, jumping up to sit on the counter. The café is empty enough that he probably won’t get in trouble for doing it, but puts on a sunny smile anyway. It should be enough to deter Taeil’s ire.

‘Why does everyone always think that?’ Taeil mutters. ‘Why can’t you go to Hansol for life advice, and all that kind of nonsense?’

Taeyong raises an eyebrow. Hansol might be a good friend, but the last time anyone asked him for some serious advice, he started reciting cliché idioms at them. Taeyong is fairly sure that if he went to talk to Hansol about Donghyuck, the older man would just start talking about lemons and lemonade.

‘Seriously, what should I do with him?’

‘Stop talking about him as if he’s not here, for one thing,’ Taeil says, turning to look at where Donghyuck was set up in the corner of the café. Taeyong had connected the kid’s laptop to the staff wi-fi when they arrived, and Donghyuck was supposed to be doing homework whilst Taeyong worked.

Judging by the grin on his face as he watches the screen, that’s not the case.

‘He doesn’t care,’ Taeyong says with a dismissive wave. ‘He’s probably watching something, instead of _finishing his essays_!’

Donghyuck looks up at Taeyong, innocent smile on his face. ‘I’m working _very_ hard, hyung. I just have to make sure that I don’t strain myself, you know?’

‘You’re not concussed anymore,’ Taeyong raises an eyebrow at the sidekick.

‘But I can’t risk re-concussing myself by hurting my head,’ Donghyuck says with a wise slow nod. ‘The doctor said that it would be potentially even worse if I got concussed again.’

‘Doing your homework is not going to give you a concussion,’ Taeil says with a click of his tongue. He puts one of the cakes that he was rearranging on a plate, carrying it over to where the teenager was set up. ‘Fifteen minutes of play, half an hour of work.’

Donghyuck attempts to give Taeil some sort of puppy dog eyes, but they don’t work. Taeil clicks out of whatever Donghyuck was watching and walks away, head held high. Taeyong’s always through that the scariest people are the ones that don’t get mad, until they wait for the right moment to strike.

Taeil is one of those people.

That doesn’t stop Taeyong from smirking though, as Taeil walks back. He’s scowling, ever so slightly, and Taeyong’s not smug, except he’s extremely, very smug.

‘See, hyung? You care about him too,’ Taeyong says, forcing his smile into something more innocent so that Taeil doesn’t try to attack him. Unfortunately for Taeyong, Taeil still tries to attack him. ‘I just, need some help working out what to do with him?’

‘Just do what you’ve done the whole time, make sure he gets to school, does his homework, doesn’t get hurt,’ Taeil says, wandering behind the counter.

Taeyong tips his head back, looking up at the shaky fluorescent lights on the ceiling (they need to replace them).

‘Do you think I should send him back to the school? Or let him live with me?’

Taeyong had heard stories, of kids who move in with their heroes only to end up consumed by it. He had heard stories of kids who lived on their own, vulnerable and exposed. Taeyong himself had shuffled between living with his parents, and living with his training superhero before settling down.

‘Depends on what you think is right? Will his parents be upset?’

‘They live on Jeju, don’t have any idea what it’s like for him over here.’ Donghyuck, from what Taeyong could tell, wasn’t too keen on telling his parents about the mortal danger side of things in Seoul.

Apparently, on Jeju, the bad-guy population was minutely smaller thanks to the hour it takes to fly there.

‘Then go with your gut. If you think it’s better for him to stay with you, then get him to stay with you. It’ll take Hansol, maybe, ten minutes to change the system at his school.’

Taeyong nods, still looking up at the ceiling before jumping off the counter. Donghyuck doesn’t move, doesn’t react as Taeyong walks over, only gives a flick of the eyes to check before turning back to the homework in front of him.

‘Donghyuck-ah,’ he says, keeping his voice low and non-threatening. (It doesn’t really work, but Donghyuck stopped taking Taeyong’s low voice seriously the day that Taeyong sung under his breath in the lair and sounded like a dying cow.) ‘Would you rather stay at the school dorms or move in with me?’

‘Your cooking is better that the school cafeteria,’ Donghyuck says with a shrug. ‘So… I’ll stay with you.’

 ‘Cool.’

Taeyong walks back to the counter, nodding lightly. It’s always better when things go quicker than expected, but Taeyong still feels a little bit weird about it. Perhaps it is because he and Donghyuck normally can’t do anything without any sort of argument. It’s kind of nice, if he’s being honest. Taeil smiles, that small little smile that means that he’s proud, and goes back to wiping the counter down.

‘That’s sorted.’

‘Look at you, being an adult and making decisions.’

Taeyong knocks Taeil lightly with his hip, but he thinks the older man understands what Taeyong means by it.

It’s going to be hard having Donghyuck move into Taeyong’s tiny apartment, especially after so many months of living alone. But he’d rather have his sidekick with him than with that school, day in and day out stuck in the same place.

The bell that Taeil tied above the café door rings, and Taeyong’s attention is immediately drawn to the front. For all that they linger and talk in the store, they’re also very good at handling the stream of customers that frequent them.

Luckily, it’s just Yuta and that means that Taeyong doesn’t _have_ to be the top of his game. The man wanders across the café, and leans against Taeil’s freshly wiped counter. It earns him a cuff to the back of the head, and Yuta whines out _something_ but Taeyong’s already finishing Yuta’s order before he’s even made it.

‘What would you have done if I had wanted something else?’ Yuta asks as he takes the Americano from Taeyong.

‘Five years and you’ve _never_ changed your order,’ Taeyong says with a shake of his head.

At least some of the others were more willing to trying new things, but Yuta always has the same Americano in the same size when he goes to a café. Sometimes, when it’s too hot he’ll get an iced one, but for the most part he keeps it the same.

‘You know me too well, TY,’ Yuta grins. He preparing to settle down near the counter, and Taeyong resigns himself to the fact that he’s probably going to have Yuta hanging off him until the end of his shift.

It could be worse, it could have been all of their little group descending on the café, so Taeyong’s not too mad. Still, being stuck with Yuta for the next hour, at least, is going to be a pain and a half. Taeyong’s almost tempted to text Hansol to distract Yuta.

Instead, he does the next best thing.

‘Just had class?’ he asks as Taeil (the coward) makes a quiet retreat to the kitchen.

Yuta groans, but nods. He’s tinged with the edge of exhaustion that only comes hand in hand with both being a superhero, and trying to do a Master’s degree at the same time.

Taeyong can’t relate.

‘I’m so ready to go to sleep, but I have a group project meeting in like an hour and a half.’

‘Not enough time to nap?’

‘Hansol-hyung’s tinkering at home, building a robot or something. I won’t be able to sleep at all if I go.’

Taeyong lets out a sympathetic nod. Hansol’s a genius and a great friend, but he can get particularly focussed when he’s working. Taeyong’s bathroom had exploded about two months previous and the two nights he stayed at Hansol’s place had been torture, and Yuta hadn’t even moved in at that point yet.

‘I’d offer the office, but it’s full of paperwork.’

‘Nah, it’s just a few more hours.’ Yuta smiles, somehow keeping that positivity up.

 

 

It takes Yuta approximately fifteen minutes to spot Donghyuck working in the corner, but doesn’t make a move to join the younger boy until the door opens and Jaehyun walks into the café. Taeyong’s not shown Yuta a picture, but he seems to work it out immediately, grin growing across his face as he excuses himself.

If there were two people that Taeyong was reluctant to introduce Jaehyun to, it would be Yuta and Donghyuck. Johnny and Doyoung at least pretend to be nice in public (although Doyoung does a terrible job of that), but Yuta is plain horrible.

Paired with Donghyuck, it can only go downhill in a steep, messy fall.

‘Hyung,’ Taeyong calls over his shoulder, I’m taking my break’

There’s no way that Taeyong can kick Yuta or Donghyuck out of the café, but he can do a careful extraction of Jaehyun. And if he does it quickly, none of them will be any the wiser that he tried to keep them apart from each other.

‘Hi, I thought I’d surprise you,’ Jaehyun greets with a wide grin just as Taeyong presses against his shoulders and steers him outside. ‘We’re not staying inside?’

‘No, no, no, no,’ Taeyong says with a heavy sigh as he leads them to one of the tables _outside_ the café. As the weather cools, they become less and less popular, but Taeyong prefers the slight October chill to the sharp ears of his friends. ‘Just wanted to, you know, get some fresh air.’

Jaehyun laughs, adorably so, and nods. ‘Fair enough.’

They’ve been texting, snippets about their days and jokes that they enjoy, but there’s something infinitely better about sitting opposite Jaehyun and talking to him. Taeyong’s been looking forward to a time that they could talk, almost to the point of rearranging his rosters, but with Donghyuck living with him, it’s been a bit harder.

‘Sorry for running out on you the other day,’ Taeyong repeats for what must have been the sixteenth time since he left to get Donghyuck.

‘Taeyong-hyung, I’ve told you that it’s fine,’ Jaehyun says. ‘Is your brother okay?’

Taeyong can’t help sparing a look through the window, seeing Yuta and Donghyuck leaning over the laptop between them. They’re laughing and that _cannot_ be a good sign. But still, ‘Seems fine to me.’

When he turns back to Jaehyun, the younger man’s gaze is fixed on Donghyuck. Taeyong’s not sure how he didn’t notice it until that moment, but Jaehyun’s no longer as tense. The set of his shoulders isn’t as stiff as before, his eyes a bit softer, and it’s like the last bits of stress just leaked out of him in the few seconds Taeyong glanced away.

Taeyong hadn’t even realised that the younger man wasn’t fully relaxed until that moment.

It’s enough to make Taeyong wonder if he hadn’t noticed it _before_ today. He remembers though, what it was like to have that tension sitting in the centre of your back, and drumming away at your heads. He hopes that he’s enough to break it for Jaehyun.

‘That’s good, he looks like he’s having a good time with your friend in there.’

‘Probably too good a time,’ Taeyong says with narrowed eyes. ‘I feel like I’m going to regret letting the pair of them talk to one another.’

‘Almost definitely,’ Jaehyun laughs.

‘Still, it’s nice to know that my friends are there for him, especially after what happened with the whole,’ Taeyong pauses because it’s still the stupidest excuse he’s ever heard in the world, ‘falling out of bed thing.

‘It’s good that you’ve got someone covering your back,’ Jaehyun says with a fond smile, and it’s so ridiculously pretty. ‘Nice to have the support and all that.’

‘Yeah,’ he says with a slow nod. ‘I’ll introduce you one day, just, not when Yuta’s there.’

‘I’d like that.’

Jaehyun’s smile has never failed to make Taeyong feel a little bit weak at the knees, but there’s something about it this time. Taeyong’s not sure if he’s getting used to the smile, being able to withstand its brilliance, but it feels starting to feel familiar to the man.

‘You never ended up telling me much about your course,’ Taeyong says, leaning back into his chair.

‘You have twenty-five minutes left of your break, and you want to hear me talk about my degree?’ Jaehyun asks, crossing his arms in front of him.

‘I want to learn more about you,’ Taeyong corrects. ‘Doesn’t have to be a deep and meaningful discussion on the merits of abstract work, but why you like it and stuff.’

‘Well, first of all, I can’t stand most abstract art,’ Jaehyun says with a laugh. ‘Or most still life.’

‘That leaves, what? Portraits and stuff?’

‘For the most part,’ Jaehyun nods. ‘I mean, I can see why people go for the still life and stuff, but I like paintings of people personally. There’s a story behind them, a meaning to why they’re there and the sort of person they are. I mean, how is a bowl of bananas meant to represent inner torment and stuff? That’s just ridiculous.’

Taeyong laughs, loud and bright. He remembers standing in a dark gallery, turning a painting left and right trying to work out the hidden messages of the bananas. ‘I know, right? I’ve seen a painting like that, and it’s…’

 ‘It’s?’ Jaehyun prompts, tilting his head to the side.

‘Confusing? Like they’re trying to put a meaning to something that doesn’t need meaning,’ Taeyong bluffs through, because he’s felt like he’s had this conversation before. It’s weird, to be talking about art in the open, not huddled away in the corners of an art gallery with a thief that he always only half knew.

Jaehyun’s smile grows, and Taeyong’s breath is stolen from him for the umpteenth time in the younger man’s presence.

It’s more comfortable this time, talking to Jaehyun. The awkward moments between them still exist, Taeyong stuttering over words and flustering at sudden flashes of Jaehyun’s smile, but Taeyong’s starting to realise something scary.

He’s comfortable with someone outside the superhero industry.

It’s been years since he’d last felt like this, years since he was able to open up to someone who didn’t know the rush of adrenaline and fear that Taeyong put himself through every night. It’s hard, connecting with someone when you’re a hero or a vigilante, because there’s something about it that makes you grow up so suddenly.

Even if you’re playful like Donghyuck, or sarcastic like Doyoung, there’s a realisation of what the world is like and how close danger is.

Most ordinary people can’t feel that.

‘What are your plans for the week?’ Jaehyun asks, and the word patrol almost rolls off Taeyong’s tongue. He catches it, however, and instead talks about his work roster and the seventeen-year-old brat who has decided to take over Taeyong’s life.

‘I’ve got to go to Donghyuck’s school at one point, but I’m mostly free. I’m thinking of watching some of _The King’s Love_. I’ve been watching that for a few weeks now,’ he says with a slight flush at the mention of the drama that he was working through at the moment.

‘ _The King’s Love_ , that’s a great one,’ Jaehyun says with a nod. Taeyong feels a flush of relief at Jaehyun being non-judgemental before: ‘The way the queen plays out as the villain before the reveal is so interesting to watch on a second time, don’t you think?’

‘Oh, my god,’ Taeyong tips his head back. ‘I can’t believe you just spoiled this for me. I was on episode eight.’

‘Taeyong-hyung, how have you not finished that drama? It came out a _year_ ago.’

‘I take a long time to watch dramas, okay?’

‘There’s only twenty episodes, it shouldn’t take more than a little while to watch it? How can you have been watching it for weeks and only been on episode eight?’

_Oh._

Jaehyun’s speaking again, playing the game that they’ve always played but Taeyong’s left staring ahead, thinking _back_.

He thinks back to the smiles and the laughter, that enraptured him from the moment Jaehyun walked into the store. The way the man held himself with confidence through so much, and how accepting he was of Taeyong not studying. Like he knew bits and pieces of how it had ripped Taeyong apart for months before dropping out.

The way he shared Taeyong’s opinions on art, and perhaps most importantly. The way he spoiled Taeyong’s dramas for him, the careless way he excused himself like it was Taeyong’s fault he didn’t have time to marathon them.

It’s all familiar, conversations that he’s had before in different art galleries around Mapo.

Taeyong’s favourite art thief disappears at the start of the new semester, and Jaehyun turns up a semester into an art degree.

‘I just, don’t have time,’ Taeyong’s voice feels weak in his throat, but Jaehyun (The Thief) doesn’t notice. ‘Work and all.’

‘I suppose,’ Jaehyun says. (It’s friendly, like he’s known Taeyong for more than a few weeks.)

‘I’m really sorry, I’ve got to check on Donghyuck before I get back to work,’ Taeyong stands on trembling legs.

(How did Jaehyun find him?)

‘No worries, text me when you’re not working?’ Jaehyun stands to join him. ‘I’m glad I got to see you, even if it was only for a few minutes.’

(Does Jaehyun know?)

‘Me too,’ Taeyong replies, the truth despite his confusion. He just needs a moment to sort this out, a moment to talk this over with someone.

‘I’ll see you later,’ Jaehyun says, and he sways on the spot for a moment before his eyes narrow into that serious look that Taeyong’s only seen a few times since he joined at the café. (But countless times before, assessing art and arguing about the shortcomings of thievery.)

Taeyong barely has a moment to process, before Jaehyun leans forward and presses a kiss to Taeyong’s cheek, almost hitting his lip. Jaehyun draws back, flushed pink, and mutters a goodbye.

Jaehyun was never this cute when he was stealing shit, it’s a nice change.

 

 

‘Hey hyung!’ Donghyuck is grinning at Taeyong when he collapses at the table. ‘Guess what Yuta-hyung showed me?’

‘What Donghyuck?’ Taeyong says, words drawn out of his body in a slow groan. He feels overwhelmed, if he’s honest, and perhaps he should kick them out of the café while he works through his thoughts.

Unfortunately, there’s no such luck.

‘Booming system up up,’ Donghyuck starts.

Taeyong doesn’t hear him finish, leaping across the café to tear Yuta’s stupid grin off his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnnd that's who Jaehyun is~ 
> 
> Next chapter has Taeyong trying to sort out the whole dating a thief thing, as well as going on patrol with Net. We should be on track to finish the story in the number of chapters listed, although they might end up being a bit longer. 
> 
> (and from there it's the dream team yay~ how good was their cb btw?)


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another delayed chapter I'm sorry! But the good news is that I have planned the bulk of the sequel(s) so we're ready to go in a fortnight or so, or whenever I get a start on it~ I've a feeling I'll just follow this through to the dreamies sequel straight away rather than venturing into other fandoms or plots. 
> 
> The next chapter may be a little delayed because I'm going interstate for KCON next weekend and am leaving the laptop at home. 
> 
> Un-beta'd but you guys have probably caught onto that.

Taeyong always forgets how good a friend Johnny can be. A veneer of playful dickishness covers the fact that Johnny would be the first to back someone in a fight. And not even a work fight, but a rude asshole in the street kind of fight.

So Taeyong isn’t _that_ surprised when Johnny is waiting for Taeyong on top of his favourite 7-11. The older man is floating about a metre up, sprawled on his back with nothing but air supporting him. Taeyong’s almost jealous of his powers, almost.

‘Taeil-hyung says you looked like a mess at work today,’ Johnny says, twisting to look at Taeyong and hands over a bag of snacks, all Taeyong’s favourites. Taeyong takes it with a grateful smile and drops down on his favourite air conditioner. ‘Talk.’

‘What would you do if you ran into … I don’t know, BlackPink or something?’

‘Stop them?’

‘No, I mean… if you just ran into one of them at the supermarket?’ 

‘The supermarket?’

Taeyong doesn’t even need to look at Johnny to know that the taller hero’s eyebrow is cocked into a judgemental little tilt. But he’s willing to listen to Taeyong and that’s what is important right now. It’s just a matter of getting the words out, getting the point across.

‘Yeah, not like during a job but off-duty.’

‘I’d probably still try to find a way to stop them or something? Perhaps monitor them to find a window? Those girls are _dangerous_ , Taeyong.’

Taeyong bits his lip. Perhaps they weren’t the smartest choice for the example, and he flails around for a moment. The thing is that Johnny only ever deals with dangerous or evil, or both, he’s never had to chase after petty crime in the way that the rest of them do.

‘Maybe not BlackPink then, Astro or something? You run into the tall one buying milk, he’s not robbing a bank, not summoning dragons from alternate dimensions … on accident,’ how they managed to do that, Taeyong still doesn’t know, ‘but just being ordinary. Would you confront them?’

Johnny exhales.

‘Astro aren’t _evil_ , or even bad really but I don’t know if I could leave them. Maybe?’ Johnny’s lips are pressed into a thin line, and Taeyong rubs his neck lightly as the hero ponders the question. ‘What’s this about, Taeyong?’

‘The Art Thief,’ Taeyong starts, ‘do you remember him?’

‘Vaguely,’ Johnny says with a shrug. He’s coming out of his relaxed sprawl, curled into a tighter ball as he looks at Taeyong. ‘You were always assigned to him? He used to hit every few weeks.’

‘That’s the one,’ Taeyong nods. ‘He stopped, probably about five months ago? I reckon just after Doyoung and I got injured.’

Johnny hums, a displeased and low sound. No-one likes being reminded of May.

‘I think, I think he quit, Johnny.’ Taeyong draws his knees up. ‘Like, _properly_ quit.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘The Thief, I think I know, on an everyday basis.’

The words are stuttering out of Taeyong, drawn out with Johnny’s sharp gaze. He shouldn’t feel this nervous saying, has never felt this nervous about discussing work, and Johnny knows it. The fact that Jaehyun is The Thief feels so important and dangerous and Taeyong doesn’t know where it’s going to go here.

‘What do you mean, Taeyong?’

‘I mean, I was talking to someone today and I realised he was The Thief.’

‘How sure are you? This isn’t something that you can say due to a vague feeling.’

‘Almost 100%.’

Johnny runs his fingers through his hair as he turns to face Taeyong properly. It’s confronting, being faced with Johnny and his full attention when he’s being serious. Taeyong feels like he’s being berated for something without knowing what he did, that lost little feeling. Except he definitely knows what he’s done wrong.

‘You’re hesitating on reporting him. Why?’

Taeyong pauses.

He doesn’t think anyone in their group have ever forged a connection, a friendly banter with the people they go up against. He doesn’t think they’d ever understand, but he forces the explanation out with a heavy breath.

‘He’s _good_ , you know? I think he’s making an effort to put it behind him?’

‘Taeyong, effort isn’t good enough.’ Johnny’s voice is steady and low, dangerous. ‘Who is he?’

‘I, I can’t say.’

He can’t say it, doesn’t want to say it, because so far things have been separate. There’s been Taeyong the hero, and Taeyong the barista, and his barista life has had little crossover with his hero life. But the moment he says the name? He knows that it’s going bring them together, a collide that he doesn’t often like to think about.

‘Taeyong, this isn’t some hero who needs his identity protected. This is a criminal, reformed or not.’

‘Johnny…’

‘It’s not like you to hesitate. I need to know who he is, why you want to protect him. We can’t afford to let you run around compromised.’

Taeyong knows Johnny is being reasonable, knows that he shouldn’t keep shying away from Johnny’s questions. But the name sticks on his tongue and he swallows down his guilt and worries to try and keep the words coming.

‘It’s Jaehyun.’

‘Jaehyun, as in your boyfriend Jaehyun?’

‘He’s not my boyfriend.’

It’s not the point of the conversation, but Taeyong’s cheeks are flaming at Johnny’s words. He has to turn away for a moment before turning back. Johnny’s eyes are narrowed into the tight assessing eyes that he only pulls out for the most important of issues — Taeyong dropping out of Uni, Ten retiring, Monopoly night.

‘Taeyong.’

‘Johnny.’

‘Are you hesitating because he’s taken you out once or twice?’ Taeyong shakes his head at Johnny’s words, but the man pushes forward. He leans forward, almost over Taeyong and Taeyong realises that Johnny is _worried_ about him. ‘Because I’m serious. If it’s because he’s really sweet…’

‘No!’ Taeyong flusters, splutters, his hands held out in defence.

‘You don’t know if the guy is pretending or not. The civ is different, for all of us. Tell me that the Taeyong that _he_ knows is the real Taeyong and I might believe that the Jaehyun that he shows you is the real Jaehyun.’

Taeyong shakes his head.

‘I think he’s genuinely trying to stop? I just, don’t know what to do? I just feel like I should give him this chance.’ He gives a sort of half shrug at the words, looking up at Johnny as he waits for the other man to give his opinion.

‘How much do you trust him?’ Johnny asks, and it’s a difficult question. Taeyong rolls the question around in his mind, it’s not that he distrusts Jaehyun, not fully. But he can’t fully let himself be swept away by the other man, not yet. He won’t let that happen.

‘Enough,’ he settles on after a moment and Johnny give a little nod.

‘Go with your gut then, see how it goes.’ Johnny doesn’t look happy saying it, but Taeyong knows that they’re both seeing the same thing: there’s no clear-cut way for them to do this. They can only work it out as it develops. ‘Watch him and hope that him becoming better is actually something that’s happening. It’s better than someone becoming a criminal, that’s for sure.’

 

 

Sometimes, Taeyong gets jealous knowing how easy it is for Johnny to patrol. He can fly through the air, can see so much of Seoul from any point and Taeyong has to walk the streets and hope that people don’t recognise him.

He changed into a hybrid outfit, something that is nondescript and civilian in nature, but still covers his identity if he needs to do a quick change into costume. Essentially, he’s pulled a hoodie over his activewear and he’s donned a beanie and facemask.

It works enough.

Net was due to meet him outside one of the train stations, and Taeyong’s pleased to see that he’s wearing something similar. A dark cap is pulled over his face, and although he’s not wearing his usual outfit, he’s wearing clothes that give enough movement should a fight breakout. Taeyong’s almost glad he’s patrolling with the man, he needs the distraction.

They start walking as soon as they meet up.

He knows that Net is nervous around him, can see it from the sharp tilt of his shoulders and the way he keeps turning to look at Taeyong. It’s almost gratifying, he knows that Net’s probably learnt his lesson but it’s just one of many and Taeyong’s going to have to be the one to teach half of them.

‘I, want to apologise,’ Net says. It’s only been a few minutes, Taeyong’s honestly a bit impressed. He thought it would take at least half an hour. ‘Which I know is nowhere near enough, but I think I should anyway.’

He’s facing straight ahead, chest pressed out and shoulders squared. He’s trying so hard to look strong, and Taeyong remembers that they’re fucking young. He’s barely past twenty-four and he’s among the older ones in their little group.

Chances are, Net is younger than he appears.

‘Why did you do it?’ Taeyong asks, voice steady as they cross the streets of Mapo. ‘And don’t give me some bullshit answer that he deserved it, or you thought you were doing the right thing.’

‘I … May,’ Net answers.

It’s not what Taeyong was expecting, not at all. Still, he waits, keeps himself steady because he can’t afford to let himself be pushed over by something as small as surprise.

‘How do you know about May?’ Why are you effected by May? Most superheroes in the business know about it, heard the story about the damage that had ripped through their group. They are a cautionary tale, Taeyong knows this.

‘I was there.’

Taeyong shoulders stiffen, but Net doesn’t notice.

‘You’re not small, you’re strong and you stand firm, that’s why you’re the leader of the group,’ Net says, voice low as they walk slowly through Mapo. ‘But that night, I saw it, and you looked _tiny_. You got thrown against a wall, and there was nothing that could have been done.’ He looks pale, paler than usual, when Taeyong turns to look at him.

‘I’ve never seen someone look as small as you did that day.’

Taeyong sighs. ‘It’s confronting,’ he explains. ‘A lot of people think we’re invincible, and finding out that we’re not, that most of us are human? It’s a surprise, and it’s a shock. It’s a risk that I accepted long ago, even though I try to avoid it. But you still have to accept it, especially now that you’re apart of us.’

Taeyong hates it, but he knows that if he lets his worries and his fears control him that he would be borderline useless in the field.

Net sighs, lifting his cap to run his hand through his hair. Taeyong is willing to be understanding about this, let the pang of sympathy in his chest resonate. It’s frustrating, and heartbreaking but there’s a spine that needs to be developed to be a hero and some people just don’t develop it enough.

‘It’s not just that,’ Net’s voice is heavy and angry, enough to bring Taeyong up short. ‘I, I can’t do this, it’s not fair.’

 ‘This life is rarely fair,’ he says, voice firm. The sooner that Net understands this, the better. Becoming a hero or a vigilante isn’t an easy decision, and with all the glorification in the media about it, Taeyong knows that false assumptions are made.

‘No, I mean…’ Net sighs, ‘it’s not fair on you that I know so much and you don’t.’

Taeyong watches, silent, waiting. He knows that Hansol’s at the end of the line, will respond in with the press of a button. He hopes, hopes, that it’s just an overreaction, that the confusing tangents of Net’s words will snap together.

‘I want you to trust me, it’s not fair that I… I mean… I was there that night because I followed you from another location. I followed you because, I was worried.’

Taeyong freezes.

‘You left in such a rush,’ Net’s voice is low. ‘I don’t know if you remember but there was an art gallery.’

‘Jaehyun?’ Taeyong splutters out.

It’s Net’s turn, Jaehyun’s turn to freeze.

‘You know?’

‘I did,’ Taeyong can see it now. Most masks only cover enough of a face that if you’re not looking for someone in particular, you can’t decipher the identity. Now that he’s _looking_ , Taeyong can see the eyes and he’s sure that if it was a domino mask rather than a face one, he’d be able to recognise the mouth.

Taeyong pulls thin fingers through his hair, looking up at Net.

‘I’m so confused,’ he breathes. ‘What the fuck?’

Net, Jaehyun removes the mask, revealing a smile that should be beautiful and happy. Instead, it’s sad and small. Taeyong shouldn’t want to fix it, shouldn’t be so concerned in the moment but he leans forward slightly to push up the corners of Jaehyun’s lips.

It draws a small laugh. Taeyong can’t help but feel a little bit of relief, because at least it’s a real laugh.

They’re supposed to be patrolling, but Taeyong decides that it’s probably better for them to talk and leads Jaehyun over to a bus stop so they can sit and talk.

‘I need you to explain what’s going on,’ he says, voice calm and steady even though he can feel his heart speed up and his thoughts bounce through his head.

‘I decided to follow you, that night and I saw you get hurt and all I could think about was the fact even with all the backup your team can provide, it still wasn’t enough.’ Taeyong remembers the way that he had yelled in protest when the robot brought up May.

He supposes it was almost worse for someone who had seen it, who could remember it clearly. Taeyong sometimes still dreamt of the sickening moment when Doyoung was suspended in the air for a half second before the drop.

‘So what, you decided to quit a life of crime because you saw me get hurt?’ he tries to say with a laugh, but Jaehyun’s eyes are serious and steady.

‘Yes.’

‘I, I don’t understand.’

‘I saw you get hurt and I realised that I didn’t want you to get hurt,’ Jaehyun explains. ‘Ever again. So, I approached Yuta-hyung and asked him to help me, he found a way for me to get out, helped me apply for uni, and arranged for me to join the team.’

‘Just like that?’

‘Pretty much. I had to make sure that you never got hurt again, that’s why, well, _that_ happened.’

Taeyong sighs. ‘You know that was stupid as fuck,’ he says.

‘I know, and I shouldn’t have done it. But all I could think about was you getting hurt again.’

Taeyong leans over sightly, letting his head rest against Jaehyun’s shoulder. The younger man flinches, before relaxing into it and it feels more comfortable than it should. The thing is, that Taeyong can see how Jaehyun could have done something so stupid. He understands now, even if he doesn’t like the circumstances.

‘The reason I say don’t engage with the bad guy? It’s because if you engage, you open a dialogue between you and them. And if something goes wrong, they can take control of that dialogue and that gives them power,’ Taeyong explains. ‘When I talk to a bad guy, I try not to engage, I try not to give them openings to take over. You have to trust that I know if I’ve got things under control.’

‘I know, I should have known,’ Jaehyun says quietly.

‘You’ll learn. That being said, I’m not going to let you off your punishment just because it’s you,’ he warns Jaehyun, looking up. Jaehyun smiles again, this time it reaches his eyes and Taeyong feels just that little bit of confused relief.

‘I know, that’s one of the things I like about you. You’re a good leader.’

‘I’m not the leader.’

‘Yeah, you are,’ Jaehyun says with a small smile. ‘Everyone listens to you, they trust you.’

‘You don’t listen to me,’ Taeyong laughs. But he can’t deny that, because for all that he complains about them, for all the he worries, he knows that he’s got a good team and he knows that they trust his judgement.

‘I’ll try my best to in the future,’ Jaehyun promises.

‘You better.’

It’s sitting on a bench, in the middle of October, that Taeyong realises that this is the most honest they’ve been with each other. The conversations they’ve shared, either over the last weeks or the last years, have always had that something hanging over them. Everything between them had always been half made, a lie and a truth tangled together.

This, he realises, is as close as they had gotten to the real Jaehyun and the real Taeyong. This, he realises, is what they have needed.

‘Hey, Jaehyun-ah?’ Taeyong murmurs.

‘Mmm?’ Jaehyun looks down.

Taeyong smiles and then leans up, pressing a proper kiss to Jaehyun’s lips. It’s small and chaste, and Jaehyun’s so shocked that he lets out a little giggle of surprise. It’s fucking adorable and Taeyong knows that he wants to hear it again and again.

‘Thanks for telling me.’

‘You don’t mind? That I kept it from you for so long?’

Taeyong shakes his head. ‘This life is full of secrets, it’s a fact. I’m just happy that you told me sooner rather than later.’

Jaehyun smiles again, that adorable smile that lifts the corners of his eyes and kisses Taeyong again. It’s a proper kiss, soft but _real_ , without the secrets and the lies that had been between them. It’s a genuine kiss between their genuine selves, and it’s fucking perfect.

Of course, as Taeyong’s luck goes, moments later they both hear a decent sized explosion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was lowkey dedicated to kaderin who was the only person who figured out (or figured out and told me) that Jaehyun was both Net and The Thief prior to the last chapter :) Hopefully the reveals didn't come across as too squished. 
> 
> NOW THAT I'VE DONE THAT REVEAL, I can now say that my numbering system for the heroes is totally not imaginative and they're all just their SM rookies number haha. 
> 
> Anyway I hope you enjoyed this chapter, see you guys either in a week or two~


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: I won't update for a little while guys sorry  
> Also Me: Writes an update in like two days. 
> 
> SURPRISE update for you guys~ We're getting close to the end and I'm super keen to put to paper what I've been planning for a while, as well as start the m a r k h y u ck sequel. 
> 
> also before I forget, I have a question regarding potential sequels: would you be more interested in a jaeyong oneshot or a jaeyong shortish chaptered fic? because I can't decide lolol. If it's a oneshot it'll be posted all at once halfway through the dreamie sequel, if it's the chaptered fic it will be alternated with donghyuck's to provide two povs when their plots overlap

It takes about twenty seconds for Hansol’s voice to come through the headset, and it’s not his usual, calm tone.

‘It’s the fucking café, get over there as soon as you can.’

Taeyong feels his blood run cold, and Jaehyun is right behind him as he sprints through the streets of Mapo. He’s pulling off his hoodie and hat as he rounds the corner, chucking it down an alley and changing from the half-assed vigilante to the more serious Hana.

They’re not far away, thankfully, and it doesn’t take long for them to reach the familiar store front. Or at least, get as close as they can.

It’s another fucking robot, crashing through the street outside of the café. It’s taller than last time, a patchwork of different metals that have been welded together and Taeyong hates that with each time it seems to be getting bigger and badder.

The first time they had encountered one of these robots, it was the size of a man. Now it was the size of truck and had spindling legs like a spider, Taeyong was willing to bet there had been more internal upgrades as well.

‘Fuck,’ Jaehyun whispers from behind Taeyong.

‘Fuck is right,’ he says, fumbling to transmit a message across through the entire network as opposed to just to Hansol. ‘Everyone here, as soon as possible,’ he snaps.

‘Can you see any weaknesses?’ Jaehyun asks. ‘Hansol-hyung?’

‘I’m scanning, but I’m going to need to come in person,’ the older man says with a grunt. There’s snapping and banging in the background, he’s packing up what he can to drive over. Taeyong doesn’t like it, but he knows there isn’t a choice in a situation like this.

It’s another person for him to account for, not entirely defenceless but more than the others, and Taeyong can’t afford to lose Hansol in something like this. He can’t afford to lose any of them, and the robot is starting to get too dangerous for them to handle on their own.

Distantly, he knows that he has to contact Suho, or maybe even Taeyeon, for help. Their teams are far more equipped for this level of destruction, but there isn’t time tonight. If he’s lucky, Hansol might be able to get a message through to one of the other teams, but that’s only if he’s lucky.

‘Just get here as soon as you can, and we’ll work on a strategy,’ he murmurs as he looks over at the robot in front of him. It stomps around, dragging heavy claw-like feet across the roads. There aren’t many people in the area, which is at least a relief. It’s not doing anything, Taeyong realises.

It’s waiting.

‘ _Where are you, Taeyong-ssi? Or Taeyong-hyung, can I call you hyung?_ ’

His earpiece crackles to life, and Jaehyun meets Taeyong’s gaze with wide eyes. The voice that comes through the earpiece isn’t the robotic stimulated voice they’ve heard in the last few times they’ve met, instead it’s lighter and thinner, _alive_.

It’s a real voice.

‘What are you doing?’ Taeyong asks. He knows that he shouldn’t engage, shouldn’t let emotions rule his conversations with the robot but he’s starting to get _pissed_. This robot seems intent on targeting them, finding Taeyong and his friends for the general destruction and anger.

What has Mapo got? A couple thousand exhausted university students, some good shops? Nothing worth destroying the streets of Seoul for. Gangnam, at least, has the money, the prestige, the horror factor, but Mapo?

Mapo is Taeyong’s home and it’s harmless and calm and he can’t believe something or someone would choose it to terrorise.

‘Well,’ the voice is light and playful. It’s more frustrating than when it was that first flat voice, emotionless and bland, because now Taeyong can hear the intent. ‘First it was just for fun, you know? Like, nothing was happening so I thought, why not kidnap Hana and his sidekick and dangle them over a vat of wax.

‘But then even that wasn’t as fun as it could have been, so I thought, why not have a proper superhero fight? And, _man_ , that was awesome, like that was a lot of fun.’

This wasn’t megalomania, the villain cackling away. This wasn’t the misguided attacking the world because the world attacked them. This was worse.

This was boredom, this was _play_.

The robot, whoever he was, was playing with them, had enough fall back on with his distant transmission. They didn’t have a single thing to lose in this because defeated by the team or not, they still won by playing the game.

‘So, you thought you’d try again?’

‘Yep,’ the voice says, the Villain, the Almighty. Whatever or whoever he was, and Taeyong was over it. ‘I hoped I’d get more of you this time. I’ve got a list, you see, and I reckon that I’ve only faced about half your group, maybe?’

‘What do you mean?’ Jaehyun says, voice steady through the mic.

‘Oh, the new guy is here as well. I don’t know much about you, I’m afraid. I’m talking about the missing members, at least three have disappeared over the past year or so, and it’s a shame.’

Taeyong’s hands curl into fists and Jaehyun curls a hand around them, opening it into a more relaxed spread. He’s looking down at Taeyong with calm, level eyes, before they rise up again to lock onto the robot. It hasn’t noticed them yet, which Taeyong’s thankful of.

‘So, you’re saying that you’ve stalked us.’ Jaehyun is talking, leading the conversation and it’s such a change from last time that Taeyong feels unnecessarily proud.

‘I wouldn’t say that, I’d say that I’m more a _fan_ of you guys. I’m not a sasaeng or anything, just a supporter who thinks you all deserve better. I didn’t think it was fair that you guys are so great, but just linger around stopping robberies and all.’

‘Someone needs to stop them, if not us then who?’

Johnny lands with a quiet touchdown behind them, feet soft as Jaehyun continues talking to the robot. Taeyong nods at him with a forced smile, glad that they’ve at least got someone who might be useful against a giant metal machine. He pulls his earpiece out, ignoring the villain’s voice to talk to Johnny.

‘Yuta is on the way, they’re picking up the kids.’

‘The others?’

‘Not sure,’ Johnny says with a small shrug. ‘I reckon you should run on the assumption that we’re running on the usual team.’

Taeyong sighs, it’s a lot more fucking difficult when he has to do this.

‘Okay then,’ he combs his fingers through his hair. ‘Jaehyun-ah, keep talking to him and I’ll sort out a plan.’

Jaehyun nods, and Johnny’s brow rises, mouthing Jaehyun’s name as Taeyong surveys the scene in front of him. He gives a half shrug, small smile on his face because at least there’s one decent thing coming out of the night.

It won’t do to repeat the same plan as last time, partially because there are no civilians to evacuate and partially because he’s fairly sure that the person who controls the robot has kept track of their last fight.

Their line isn’t secure anymore, which means that Taeyong can’t brainstorm with the others. There’s the desperation but there’s also the slight fear, because they barely pulled it together last time. This time he’s got to be smarter, and he’s got to be quicker than the other man.

Another explosion goes off, a car blowing up Taeyong realises, and they jump in the small huddle.

‘Jesus, what’s going on Jaehyun?’ he splutters out, pushing his earpiece in for a moment.

‘He’s causing enough destruction to keep us interested,’ Jaehyun says with a shake of his head. ‘As if crime is going to get someone’s attention.’

‘You literally robbed like thirty art galleries,’ Taeyong says.

‘Yeah, and I got the guy after I left that life and went for the clean cut stuff,’ Jaehyun smiles and it’s the worst timing but Taeyong is highly aware of the fact they’ve both got dopey smiles on their face. Johnny cough, loud and harsh, from where he’s drifted up to get a bird’s eye view.

‘…Are you guys, dating?’ the Almighty (stupid, stupid name) asks. ‘That’s so cute. I mean, I always thought that Hana-hyung would be good with Daseot, but I suppose you seem pretty cute.’

He actually sounds pleased by it. Taeyong doesn’t know what to think about this villain, who seems more intent on making life difficult and having fun that having a clear plan to destroy the government or hold people for ransom.

‘How about you just, _don’t_ ,’ Taeyong suggests over the comms. ‘Like, stop this and do something else? Focus your effort into work or something? I assure you, you could go _really_ far in life you applied this conviction into other things.’

It’s a pretty weak suggestion, and the villain seems to agree.

He’s laughing so hard over the comms that he’s practically wheezing. Taeyong would be almost insulted if not for the fact that Yuta was coming around the corner with the most unimpressed expression on his face that Taeyong’s ever seen.

‘Shut up,’ he says to the man. Hansol is following, small smile on his face as if he’s amused by Taeyong’s suggestion, with his arms laden with cases. Probably the computers he’s got to use, if Taeyong was to guess.

Donghyuck and Mark are trailing behind with the last of Hansol’s gear, arguing under their breath with the sneaky smiles of people who don’t realise the gravity of their situation yet – they really need to look into getting comms for the kids, Taeyong realises.

‘Do you need to get closer?’ Taeyong asks Hansol when the man puts his cases down on top of a car. Hansol shakes his head, already starting to set up a similar workspace to what he has set up in the spare room of his and Yuta’s house.

‘I can probably monitor him from here, the only thing is that we don’t have the comms until I can kick him off.’

‘We’ll have to go in silent then,’ Taeyong sighs. ‘You said you might be able to track the signal origin if it’s active?’

‘Mmmm?’ Hansol is plugging something into something else, Taeyong’s not sure what he’s doing, but he pauses long enough to make eye contact with Taeyong. Some people, at least, in their little group had manners. 

‘Active enough for you?’ he points to the robot.

Hansol grins. ‘Perfect, I’ve got the program built so once it starts, we just have to keep him active enough to get the location.’

Now, now Taeyong’s got something that he can start shaping into a plan.

‘Yeolhana,’ he looks to Donghyuck, who snaps to attention. ‘No more concussions for you, you’re going to be helping Set-hyung from here.’ He can see that Donghyuck’s not pleased, from the tilt of his brow and downturn of his lips, so Taeyong walks a bit closer as he speaks in a lower voice, not to be overheard by the others. ‘Once Hansol’s kicked this guy off our comms, you’re going to have to help me coordinate, got it?’

Donghyuck nods.

‘Dul, you’re going to come in from the top, try not to do any permanent damage but just keep him distracted.’ Johnny nods, slowly lifting off the ground, but Taeyong shakes his head and tells him to stay down while he finishes explaining the plan.

‘As for the rest of us, we’re going to try and attack from the lower levels, we want Johnny to be the main focus of the fight, but keep his attention moving around.’ They’re nodding, Mark rolling up his sleeves in preparation to probably punch a hole in the robot or something. ‘Remember that this thing is being controlled by a person, it’ll be hard for them to fight us from five different directions.’

‘Wait,’ Hansol says, pointing to the case that Mark had been carrying. ‘I’ve got some stuff that might be able to help.’

Taeyong recognises a few of the things in the box – stuff that other groups had passed onto them, not faulty but not new. Hansol has obviously worked his magic on them, because they’re looking bigger and sturdier.

They might not have powers, or money, but they did have a genius engineer and understanding seniors.

‘Take a couple of explosives, they’re not big but they’ll be enough to knock it back a little bit,’ Hansol hands them over to Taeyong and Jaehyun, who tucks them away. Taeyong weighs his in his hand first, wondering how much strength he’ll need to put into throwing it.

‘Thanks, hyung,’ he says with a nod.

‘Do I get anything?’ Donghyuck asks, innocent smile on his face. Taeyong’s about to answer no when Hansol pulls out a _fucking ray gun_ and hands it to Donghyuck. He wants to be mad, but honestly Donghyuck looks so pleased that Taeyong can’t even say no.

‘Okay, let’s do this. Comms off until Donghyuck tells us,’ he says with a nod, and they break away into the darkness.

 

 

Despite the command for comms to stay off, Taeyong clicks his on as he climbs the side of the building.

‘I’ve got to ask, what’s so interesting about us in the first place?’ he asks.

The voice on the other side of the comms laughs. ‘I thought you were going to abandon me, hyung!’ His voice is coming through clearly, almost clearer than when the others do and Taeyong would be impressed if he wasn’t so irritated by this person. ‘But if you must know, it’s because you guys are so ordinary, you know? Like, EXO freaking fight aliens and stuff, but you guys? You’re _relatable_.’

‘I thought you wanted us to do more?’

‘Doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate where you guys are from you know?’

‘Not really, no,’ Taeyong says, and it draws something that could have been a sigh from the voice (because Taeyong refuses to call him The Almighty). ‘I mean, I get that you might like us, but I don’t get how that lead to this.’

‘I thought it would be fun,’ the voice dares to say with a laugh, and Taeyong _hates_ how the fact that he’s controlling it by remote means that there’s no sense of danger for this person. At least they could probably put this to an end tonight, end everything before it gets worse than it actually is.

‘People are getting hurt and you think it’s _fun_ ,’ he says with a heavy sigh.

‘I mean, I don’t _mean_ for people to get hurt,’ the voice says. ‘Wait, no I do, _grrr_ I’m a bad guy.’

‘Of course you are,’ Taeyong says, before waving his hand once.

Johnny drops, using the full force of gravity to crash into the robot. He’s not going fast enough to have actually dug a hole through the robot (thank fuck) but it’s enough to batter the robot and cause it to scramble for purchase.

The voice curses, and Taeyong feels a sense of satisfaction in knowing that he’s thrown the other off.

‘No, no, no,’ the voice is repeating as Mark darts out to tug on one of the legs. Taeyong’s constantly surprised at how strong the kid is, as he pulls the robot a good couple of meters across.

One of the other legs swing out to try and swipe at Mark, but Yuta’s already there from the other side and Johnny from above. There are eight legs, there are only five of them fighting but they’ve got their attention focussed and the voice has theirs split.

Taeyong leaps off the top of the building, hearing a loud _WHAT THE FUCK_ from what must be Johnny. He delights in the freefall, using a zipline to swing out and around, wrapping the legs of the robot in front of him.

It’s enough to cause the robot to trip, rolling to the side as he lands with a soft roll. Jaehyun’s standing at the robot’s feet and he looks impressed. Taeyong tries not to seem cocky, but he’s good and he knows it.

‘Stop it, stop it,’ the voice is repeating as the legs rip out through the wires. It’s enough for them to take a breath, to choose a new angle to hit the robot from. Yuta is already levitating a couple of bins to propel forward when it manages to get up. ‘Stop it, sto—’

‘Okay hyungs, Set-hyung managed to block him and we’re alone on the comms now,’ Donghyuck’s higher voice cuts through with a small grin. ‘Also, the tracking software’s working and we’re narrowing down where he is. Set-hyung says give him about ten minutes and then we should have what we need.’

‘Okay, let’s keep this up guys, just a little while longer.’ Thankfully they don’t have to deal with the longer battles that he knew that other groups had to deal with. Just a little while longer and they’d be able to put an end to this.

Whoever was having a grand old time on the end of his comms was going to be in for a shock when Taeyong stormed in and punched him in the face.

 It was harder to get a read on the robot without its controller yapping away in his year, Taeyong realised. It was almost deadly silent as it moved around, sweeping at them with long, strong legs.

Even with their distraction techniques, it was hard to stay a step or two ahead of the robot. Taeyong cursed as he rolled out of the way of one of the legs, hitting a wall too quick but ultimately staying clear.

‘Everyone okay?’ he asks.

Mark’s ripped off one of the claws, his hands squashing the metal in a tight grip as he moves in and out to try and keep out of the way. Yuta is throwing whatever he can at the robot, including but not limited to a bench, pure energy and bottles that people had left behind. Luckily, none of Taeil’s furniture are outside for Yuta to use as ammunition. Johnny is fighting with a leg or two from above, trying his best to unbalance the robot.

Jaehyun, somehow, is staying low, attaching the explosives to the bottom of the robot in its blind spot.

It’s not looking bad, but it’s not looking good.

Taeyong yells a warning and then pelts one of the explosives at the robot, setting off the smaller ones that Jaehyun had placed on it. The explosion rocks the robot, sending it down for what must be the umpteenth time, but this time it rolls over and there’s a moment where it just stands there.

Then, to Taeyong’s horror, it starts spinning. Around and around, legs flailing out and creating a blade of sorts and every one of them is skittering backwards. Taeyong watches as a car gets ripped to shreds and calls them back.

‘Fuck,’ he mutters. ‘Is anyone hurt?’

‘Not yet, but we will be soon,’ Johnny says over the comms. ‘There’s no way he can tell what the robot is hitting, not like this.’

The robot flies forward, destroying street posts and cars and walls and Taeyong knows that this has just gone from bad to terrible.

‘Can we punch a hole through it?’ Yuta asks, yanking Mark out of the way with a strong telekinetic pull.

‘Maybe?’

‘Protect what you can,’ Taeyong tells Yuta, although the other man has already backed into a more defensive position. ‘Keep an eye on the kids, especially.’

‘On it,’ Yuta mutters.

The legs rip through buildings, destroying walls and glass until Taeyong realises with some sort of sad pang that it had destroyed the café front among everything else. It’s brief, the realisation, but he doesn’t have time to dwell in it as he begins to shuffle through his pockets to find something that could immobilise the robot.

Until, well, a bright light of _something_ zooms out behind them and tracks over a car (burns it), the café (burns the veranda), Jaehyun (who ducks out of the way, thank fuck) before settling on the robot.

The robot bursts into flames, and Donghyuck is standing there with the ray gun poised and a wide grin painted across his face.

‘THAT WAS _AWESOME_ ,’ he shrieks with a grin. ‘Hyung can I keep this?’

‘No.’

‘I thought we needed to get the location of the transmitter,’ Yuta says, climbing over the robot to where they’re standing.

‘We got it already,’ Hansol says, holding out a tablet that has some sort of map open on it. Blinking in the middle of it is a red circle, indicating the location of the signal and Taeyong feels the sense of relief in knowing that this will all be over in less than a day.

‘I’ll head over there now,’ he says with a nod. Johnny’s already preparing to join him, reading the location from the tablet and calculating the flight, Taeyong’s assuming.

‘No need,’ Taeil’s voice cuts through, and they turn to see the shorter man walking through the rubble with an extremely stormy expression on his face. Taeyong hadn’t even realised the older man turned up. ‘That fucker destroyed my café.’

‘You have insurance,’ Taeyong says, even as Taeil takes the tablet from Hansol’s hand.

‘He still fucking destroyed my café.’

Taeyong decides it’s probably not a good idea to point out that Donghyuck accounted for a decent amount of the damage as well.

There’s a groaning sound. Taeyong turns to see the robot moving again, twitching under heavy, damaged joints before it sways upwards. Half its legs aren’t working, the steps unsteady as it lurches towards them. Donghyuck readies the ray gun again (too close to them, especially with his aim) but before he can, Taeil is stepping forward.

‘Fuck no, you fucker,’ Taeil mutters and his hand curls into a fist. The robot crumbles into a tight ball, and then Taeil opens his hand again. He reaches, and Taeyong will always be amazed at how he does this, and it disappears into space before pulling with a sharp tug. The owner of the voice is ripped through space, landing at their feet.

He’s small, and thin and when he looks up at them he’s young as anything.

Donghyuck gasps slightly from next to Taeyong, but it’s Mark who splutters out, ‘ _Jaemin_? What the fuck?’

‘Language,’ Johnny barks, eyes fixed on the kid in front of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I bet literally none of you were expecting that~ it's one of the reasons for the dreamies sequel, surprise~~ _i miss him so much_
> 
> Anyway, the last chapter will not be anywhere near as long as this so I might actually be able to get it up before kcon :)


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it guys, the end! I can't thank you enough for the support you've given me over this fic ❤️it's sappy Sam time but seriously it's been a wild few months and I went from not enjoying writing and feeling awkward and clunky to genuinely loving a story I wrote and finishing the longest fanfic I've ever written (by like 3000 words but shhh). All of this was because the support and engagement from you guys. Honestly this chapter was difficult to write not just because it was the last but also because I had what seemed like a lot and very little to cover in a chapter, so I hope it's a fitting ending.
> 
> Also a massive thank you for the 200 kudos this reached just before I uploaded xx

Despite the charring on the walls, the broken windows and the smashed furniture, the café was still somewhat in a useable condition. Taeil flicks on the lights that were working, pulling some mismatched lamps from their various homes by ripping more holes in reality (drawing many amazed gasps from the three teenagers on the team) before turning on the coffee machine. 

The rest of the group troop into the café, stepping over broken glass and bits of wood. They look like a right mess, and Taeyong knows it. The adrenaline of the fight had seeped out of all of them moments after they realised the so-called Almighty was little more than a child, and instead the exhaustion of the fight had caught up to them. 

Yuta and Hansol are tucked into each other’s sides, Johnny has a hand on Mark’s shoulder as he guides the sidekick in and Donghyuck clings to Taeyong, not quite to the back of Taeyong’s shirt but close enough that it would draw a laugh in any other situation. 

Jaehyun hovers behind Taeyong before slinging an arm around him and placing his other hand lightly between Donghyuck’s shoulder blades. It would have been subtle, if not for the fact that he levelled Jaemin – a whole teenaged human to Jaehyun’s adult – with a hard glare as he did it. 

Taeyong can’t help but feel a bit of pity for the kid. 

‘Take a seat,’ Taeil says with a slight wave of his hand, gesturing to the chairs that had escaped Jaemin’s rampage and Donghyuck’s terrible aim. ‘Anyone want coffee?’

Taeyong pulls off his mask, heading over to behind the counter as well, at the murmurs of agreement from their group. Between the two of them, they have memorised everyone’s orders and it wouldn’t take more than a few minutes to make the coffees.

Donghyuck doesn’t detach himself and instead follows Taeyong and Taeil to the counter, picking up mugs at random. Taeyong doesn’t comment on Donghyuck’s silence, but instead just rubs the boy’s shoulder lightly. 

‘So, your name is Jaemin?’ Taeil directs to the lanky boy. 

‘Yes, sir.’

‘You built the robot?’

‘Yes, sir.’

Taeil lets out a low hum. 

‘Hyung,’ Mark says and he looks up at Johnny for a moment before turning back to Taeyong and Taeil behind the counter. He takes off his mask, and Donghyuck lets out a small exhale that could have been interpreted as a gasp. ‘You can’t punish him for this.’

‘He  _ did _ do a lot of damage, Mark-ah,’ Taeil says with a shake of his head. ‘I can’t just let him go because of it.’

‘But  _ hyung _ !’ Mark stands up in protest, but a quick tug from Johnny pulls him back into his seat. 

‘Mark-hyung, it’s fine,’ Jaemin says, hands folded in his lap. 

Donghyuck is being strangely, unnaturally,  _ scarily _ quiet in the back corner with them. 

‘Are you okay?’ Taeyong asks, getting closer to the boy as he starts the coffee machine.

‘I’m… fine, hyung,’ Donghyuck says, but his eyes are still fixed on Mark and Jaemin on the other side of the coffee shop. He doesn’t sound it and Taeyong pushes him into one of the seats near the counter rather than forcing him back to the main group. 

‘You don’t have to tell them if you don’t want to,’ he says. 

‘Okay,’ Donghyuck says as they start on the coffees properly. 

‘So, you’re saying that you built all those robots at eighteen?’ Hansol asks, leaning across the table to Jaemin. He looks impressed which is something of a change for the normally quieter man. Taeyong steps forward again, this time with a latte in hand for Jaehyun, who takes it with a smile, and an americano for Hansol. 

‘He’s really nice, I promise,’ Mark pipes up again. 

‘That’s not our concern,’ Taeyong answers, voice steady. ‘Our concern is about good, not nice.’ 

Mark’s face twitches with something, an annoyed flutter that he supresses in a moment. It’s almost funny, how this is what breaks the obedience and respect in the boy. It’s almost admirable, because Taeyong can tell that they’re friends.

But that isn’t what is important. 

Taeil comes over, Donghyuck trailing behind with more cups in hand. He slides something in front of Mark and Jaemin, it looks more like hot chocolate than the coffees and teas that the adults are receiving. 

‘What were you trying to achieve?’ Taeil asks, settling in at the head of the table. 

Taeyong moves to sit next to Jaehyun, but the other man shakes his head before turning to the still silent Donghyuck. Donghyuck slides in first, wedged in between Taeyong and Jaehyun and Taeyong realises this is what makes Jaehyun great, what has always helped Taeyong define him as  _ good _ . 

‘I just, wanted to have fun,’ Jaemin says with a shrug and it’s not enough to impress Taeyong. ‘I wanted something to do. It wasn’t supposed to turn into anything, it wasn’t supposed to get as big as it did.’

‘You built a giant robot and stampeded through Hongdae,’ Jaehyun deadpans. He slips off his own mask, drawing a quiet  _ what the fuck _ from Johnny and a smug smile from Yuta, and his eyes are deadly serious as he looks at the boy. ‘Because trust me, I know that most people can find something to do without destroying a neighbourhood.’

‘He didn’t  _ actually _ hurt anyone,’ Mark argues, Johnny looks bot incredulous and ready to ground Mark. ‘Except for Haechan.’ He sends a guilty smile at Donghyuck, who just sips from his hot chocolate and shrugs. He’s avoiding looking at all of them.

‘I’m okay now,’ he lies, but it’s enough to draw a  _ See! _ from Mark as he turns to the rest of them. Taeyong knows that Mark can be oblivious, but this was ridiculous. 

‘Are you going to arrest me?’ Jaemin asks, hands wrapped around the mug in front of him. 

‘We don’t arrest people kid,’ Yuta says. ‘We just stop them.’ If anything, that seems to make the boy more nervous and he pales even more. 

Taeyong can’t help the guilty expression that flashes over his face as he looks at Jaehyun. He was supposed to stop Jaehyun, but all his efforts had been half-hearted at best. It paid off in the end, but that doesn’t mean that Taeyong should have approached it the way he did. 

‘What are you going to do to me then?’ Jaemin asks. 

Taeil hums before leaning forward, ‘We know who you are, where you go to school, where you live,’ he starts, and Jaemin shrinks back at every word. Taeil isn’t scary at first glance, he’s the smallest of all them, but there’s a hard look behind his eyes and a relaxed tilt to his shoulders. He doesn’t need to be on the edge of ready to fight. ‘So we’re going to put you on probation.’

‘What?’ 

‘No point in arresting you or turning you over to any of the official authorities. You’ve got excellent mechanical skills from the sounds of things, and it’ll be a waste of your potential to be locked up in a cell until you’re thirty.’ 

Taeyong nods. ‘We’ll put you under watch, instead,’ he offers, and Jaemin looks shell shocked where he’s sitting. Mark’s face is about the same, but he’s got a gleam of excitement to it. 

‘Set-ssi will be in charge of you,’ Taeil says, waving a hand to Hansol who gives a half sort of wave. ‘Which means that you’re going to be stuck with Yeoseot-ssi as well.’

‘Seriously, just call us Hansol and Yuta-hyung though,’ Yuta says, grin working across his face. Taeyong feels a brief, brief wave of pity for Jaemin because Yuta is possibly the worst possible mentor to have in the world. 

He tried to teach Taeyong how to do a flip when they were fifteen and broke a window. 

They weren’t anywhere near a window when they started. 

Jaemin perks up considerably, a grin growing across his face that doesn’t hold nearly as much fear as he’d displayed moments before. 

‘You mean you  _ won’t _ kill me?’

‘… no, we won’t kill you,’ Taeyong says, trying to picture how any of them could be seen as dangerous enough to  _ kill _ someone. ‘But this isn’t a you’re instantly forgiven and pardoned situation, you have to understand this. You have to earn that if you want to be more than just under supervision.’

‘Yes, yes, I will, I promise,’ Jaemin says with a rapid nod of his head.

Taeyong presses his lips together, this would have to do for now. There was no way for them to tell if Jaemin was evil, no way for them to tell if he was good even. Their only chance was to observe him, limit him, and hope that they weren’t misplacing their faith in the face of youth. 

‘You go to school?’ Taeyong asks. The boy doesn’t look much older or younger than Donghyuck, and if he knows Mark then he was probably a student of some sorts. 

‘Yes, I’m a second-year high school student,’ Jaemin says. ‘I mean, I’m supposed to be. I haven’t gone to school this semester?’

‘… It’s two months into the semester.’

Donghyuck twists slightly next to Taeyong, and a quick glance down shows that he’s suppressing a smile. It’s not the biggest relief of tension, but it feels better, knowing that Donghyuck’s somewhat okay. 

‘I got hurt over the summer, I’ve been home-schooled for the past couple of months because I couldn’t go to school,’ Jaemin explains. Mark looks  _ stricken _ at the words, reaching across to place a hand on Jaemin’s for a moment. Jaemin just gives a little half smile and shrug in response. 

Their friendship, at least, seems genuine. 

‘But you were okay enough to build a giant robot,’ Taeyong can feel his eyebrows rising up, and Jaemin shifts in his seat again. 

‘…I mean, not at first,’ he says with a smile, this time going for innocence. It may have worked, if Taeyong hadn’t grown up with Yuta as a best friend and if Jaemin hadn’t been controlling said giant robot just an hour prior. ‘But I was getting better and getting really bored and needed something to do.’

‘I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if you’re well enough to build a giant metal robot, you’re well enough to go back to school.’ 

Donghyuck really does snort at that, still refusing to look at Jaemin and Mark, and Jaehyun coughs loudly to cover it. He looks over Donghyuck’s head at Taeyong and the smile that he sends is both amused and kind. 

Jaemin’s face pulls into something similar to horror. Taeyong’s seen it before, when he’s made Donghyuck finish all his maths homework right in front of him. It settles him a little bit, because it means that this kid could be  _ real _ , real enough that Taeyong can see the shadows of what Mark insists about him being nice. 

‘It’s either that or we call up your parents and take over your home-schooling,’ Taeyong offers. 

‘Don’t do it,’ Donghyuck hisses, voice low. It’s the first time he’s addressed Jaemin directly without prompting from someone else, and his smile is just a little bit forced. 

‘Fine, I’ll go back to school,’ Jaemin sulks, taking a sip of his hot chocolate. 

Taeyong nods, satisfied, as he looks around the small table in front of him. Taeil is watching the boy through careful eyes, whilst Johnny is still keeping an eye on Mark even as he relaxes at the table. 

Yuta and Hansol start questioning Jaemin, nothing intense but just a few questions here and there to try and gauge who the boy is. Taeyong can see the shadows of excitement in Hansol’s eyes, he’s always wanted help with the tech that he works with and Jaemin is likely the first person to be able to talk to him about it. 

‘You okay?’ Taeyong asks Donghyuck, voice soft as the others are distracted.

‘Not really,’ Donghyuck says looking up through the mask. ‘I, I  _ know him _ , them,’ he says, looking at the boys across the table. Mark has joined in on the conversation, seemingly excited to be sharing a part of his life with a friend, even if that friend was something of a supervillain. 

‘It happens, and it’s scary sometimes,’ Taeyong says honestly, looking at Jaehyun over Donghyuck’s shoulder. ‘But it’s up to you what happens now, you can tell them who you are or you can stay a secret.’

‘No-one’s going to judge you for your choice,’ Jaehyun offers, and it earns him a surprised look from Donghyuck. 

Really, they’ve all learnt a lot tonight and Taeyong’s almost impressed at how well Donghyuck’s holding it together. He probably would have been a mess already (had been a mess already) if he had been hit with a double identity reveal like Donghyuck had just been. 

‘Mark-hyung’s going to be biased, observing him, isn’t he?’ Donghyuck asks, and his voice is level and analytical. It takes Taeyong a moment to place where he’s heard the tone before. It’s his own, when he has to come up with a plan in the brief moments before a fight. 

‘Yeah,’ Taeyong admits. If Johnny hears them, he doesn’t say anything, just flashes them a quiet look and serious nod. ‘He could be acting, for all that we know.’

‘Then, I won’t tell him,’ Donghyuck says. ‘I’ll, I’ll see it differently.’ 

‘If you’re sure,’ Taeyong says, because Donghyuck is so young, and so untrained and a giant pain in the arse, but he’s Taeyong’s Donghyuck and he wants what’s best for his sidekick.

‘I’m sure,’ Donghyuck says with a nod. Taeyong feels proud of him, and he’s going to remember to say it when they’re not surrounded by co-workers and exhausted from a night’s fight. 

‘…What, the fuck.’ 

Taeyong looks up and away from Donghyuck. 

Standing at kitchen entrance of the café is Sicheng with a rolling pin raised and Doyoung holding out one of the knives that he uses to cut fondant with. Doyoung looks pissed, whilst Sicheng looks more shocked than anything. 

‘I thought this was supposed to be a civilian only space,’ Doyoung says, he hasn’t lowered the knife, and is instead walking towards Taeyong and frankly it’s kind of terrifying. 

‘Why do you think this is my fault?’ Taeyong asks, standing up and sliding away from Jaehyun and Donghyuck. 

‘Because it’s always your fault,’ Doyoung hisses. ‘I had to get up at three am because I have to start baking for today’s shift. Only you’ve destroyed the shop!’

‘It wasn’t me!’

‘Sicheng  _ offered _ to join me on the morning shift to make it go by faster, has anyone in this room ever offered to do that? No, and what does he get from it? Thinking that the store has been broken into by hoodlums. And now we’re not even opening today!’

‘Why wouldn’t we be opening today?’ Taeyong asks. 

Doyoung levels him with the dirtiest look he’s ever given Taeyong. ‘Because the entire front half of the shop is missing, you idiot.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully that felt complete, obviously there are the sequels but I'm hoping that there is a degree of completeness to the fic. I can't promise when the sequels will be posted but keep an eye our, they shouldn't be more than a fortnight at the most. Thanks again for following this fic ❤️


End file.
